
Class _fiA2 

Cop)TigIitJl^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 






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U'ws>awta^ f fl 



S/i^oruS/V 



AND 



SUNDRY PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 



OF THE AUTHOR 



BY 



WILLARD V. HUNTINGTON 




SAN FRANCISCO 
THE BANCROFT COMPANY 

1891 






Copyright, 1S91 by W. V. Huntington 



3icktt0toleas«^^^* 



^ 



WHE AUTHOR would hereby make acknowledgment of 



assistance in the compilation of sundry data utilized 
in this work, to Campbell's Sketch of the History of 
Oneonta, copies of the earlier volumes of the Oneonta Herald 
and to the following individuals/all residents of my native town; 
except the lady first mentioned, who was born there in the year 

1796. 

Mrs. Mary Couse White, of Meredith, 

Mrs. Aaron Ford, 

Mrs. Polly Parish, 

Mrs. William S. Fritts, 

Mrs. Roxey A. Parish, 

Mr. Harvey Baker, 

S. H. Case, M. D., 

D. M. Campbell, Esq., 

J. H. Keyes, Esq., 

Mr. J. R. L. Walling, 

Mr. John Cutshaw, and 

Mr. Silas Sullivan, now deceased. 



Contents 



CHAPTER. I'Aiit.. 

Introductory Verse — Memory. - - vii 

I. Bei?inning of Oneonta ----- 9 

II. 1812 -------- 17 

III. 1823 -------- 20 

IV. 1834 -------- 24 

V. 1840 - - 27 

VI. 1849 -------- 30 

VII. 1860 -------- 34 

VIII. The First Shadow 36 

IX. The McCraney Case ----- 39 

X. An Old House - 44 

XI. A Long Journey - 48 

XII. Beginning of School Life - - . - 51 

XIII. Early Experiences and Impresssions, Part I. 56 

XIV. First Return to the Old District School - 59 
XV. 1865 -.-.---- 61 

XVI. Early Experiences and Impressions, Part II. 64 

XVII. Great Thunder Storm 67 

XVIII. Adventure at Worcester . - - - 69 

XIX. The Railroad Celebration - - - - 72 

XX. Burglars in Town ----- 75 

XXI. First Business Ventures - - - . 77 

XXII. Early Experiences and Impressions, Part III. 79 

XXIIL A Summer Day ------ 84 

XXIV. The Old Fire Department - - - 89 

XXV. General Training ----- 91 

XXVI. Winter Sports ------ 93 

XXVII. Falling Leaves - - -^ - - - 97 



i CONTENTS 

CIIAI'TEU. PAGE. 

XXVIII. Recollections of a Private School - 100 

XXIX. Spring Time 103 

XXX. Story of a Bottle of Elderberry Wine 107 

XXXI. Popular Gatherings ----- 109 

XXXII. Early Experiences and Impressions, Part IV. 115 

XXXIII. The Old Churches ----- 121 

XXXIV. Cravings for Adventure - - - - 125 
XXXV. Early Experiences and Impressions, Part V. 131 

XXX VI. First Trip to New Lisbon - - - - 134 

XXXVII. In the Graded School ----- 131» 

XXXVIII. Life with a Country Phj^sician - - 151 

XXXIX. Last Days of Boyhood at Home - . 154 

XL. 1872 ..,.-..- 157 

XLI. First Trip to Mason ville - - - - 165 

XLII. Boarding School, 1870-1873 - - - 1G9 

XLIII. Home Life in 1873 - - " - - - 175 

XLIV. First Trip to Hartwick - - - - 180 

XLV. Only the Brightness of Morning - - 186 

XL VI. A Ride on a Stormy Day - - - - 189 

XLVII. Farm Life in 1874 . - - - - 192 

XLVIII. Farm Life in 1875 ----- 19s 

XLIX. A Half-Shire Trip 202 

L. Last Years of Village Life - - - 204 

LI. 1877 - - - 206 

LII. An Illustrious Name . - - - 209 

LIII. Fairs — Old and New ----- 213 

LIV. 1890 -------- 216 

LV. Sounds that Linger - - - - - 218 



^ 



^M 



^ 



memory 

AVhen Memory, with slow uncertain lingers, 
Awakes, anew, the echoes of the Past ; 

There are some keys on which her touch long lingers- 
Some trembling chords that vibrate to the last. 



CHAPTER I. 
BEGINNING OF ONEONTA. 



||\ HE SITE of the village of Oneonta was, m 
all probability, first occupied by white 
people not many years after the close of the war of 
the American Revolution. 

The early settlers little thought they were forming 
the nucleus of a town which, within one hundred 
years, would maintain a population greater in extent 
than could be found at any other given point, within 
a section 6f the Eaipire State, extending from Kings- 
ton, on the east, to Cortland, on the west; from 
Amsterdam on the north, to Binghamton on the 
south. 

Oneonta village is situated upon ground more or 
less hilly and The Plains a few miles west thereof 
has often been looked upon as a more natural place 
for a large town. In a purely physical sense, applied 
locally, this may be correct, but in considering the 
respective merits of the two points, in their relation- 
ship to the general topography of the country sur- 
rounding, a person of good judgment, if expressing 
an opinion, would decidedly answer in the negative. 



10 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

for Oneonta is situated more conveniently of access, 
and to a larger number of people in Otsego and 
Delaware counties than ever could be The Plains. 
It is the point most commonly central to the people 
of the Charlotte, Schenevus and Otego creek valleys, 
as well as that of tjie upper Susquehanna and they 
all come down hill to reach it. 

But to return to a brief historical consideration 
of Oneonta : The first one of the now^ numerous 
village streets to be used hy man as a thoroughfare, 
was undoubtedly Main street and for ages, perhaps, 
before the coming of the Caucasian to our lovely 
valley, it constituted a popular foot path or trail of 
the wild and predatory savage who preceded him. 

The pomp and pageantry of war were notunknown 
to Oneonta's leading valley even before the hardy 
pioneer had succeeded the aboriginal in tlie occupa- 
tion of the land, for when the Kevolutionary War had 
reached a mid-way point, its operations caused the 
passage down the Susquehanna from its source, of 
one thousand soldiers under General James Clin- 
ton, bound for the country of the Six Nations 
farther west. War had shown its hideous side the 
preceding year in the burning of Cherry Valley and 
the massacre of its inhabitants by the Indians, but 
General Clinton having effected his junction with 
General Sullivan, the country of the hostiles was 
so effectually laid waste that the destruction of 
the Otsego county pioneer settlement was partially 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 11 

avenged. Then for some years I imagine the 
presence of man was rarely felt in the dense hem- 
lock woods that then covered the ground upon 
which now rest the foundations of a thousand 
homes. I fancy the only sounds there heard were 
those which pertained either t9 the warfare of the 
elements, or to the humble phases of Nature's life. 
* * * * -5^ * 

Kecently it was my good fortune to have an 
interview with an aged lady who was not only born 
within the township limits of Oneonta, but whose 
memory extended back to the appearance of the 
village at the very beginning of this century. I 
will endeavor to give the substance of her recol- 
lections in a picture of Oneonta as it was in 

1803. 

The obscure little settlement, remote from all 
prominent highways of travel, comprised simply 
two thoroughfares in what are now called Main and 
Chestnut streets, although at that time they could 
hardly be dignified by the appellation of '' streets." 

There was, to be sure, a road in those days cor- 
responding nearly with the present location of Maple 
street, but this road was at that time a little beyond 
what could properly be* denominated the limits of 
the place. 

Chestnut street then consisted of three log houses 
only; one located on what was afterwards the home- 



12 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

stead site of my father, and the other two were 
situated on the flat land near a point opposite the 
present residence of John Cutshaw. These houses 
were the sole habitations of man upon this thorough- 
fare and each domicile was within the limits of a 
small clearing. Their owners were Daniel White, 
Anthony White and Zachariah Ward. 

Main street could probably claim the first build- 
ing erected in the settlement, in the small frame- 
house of Frederick Brown built about the year 1790 
on what was afterwards the stone residence lot of 
the late E. R. Ford, Esq. 

Mr. Brown had a considerable area of land cleared 
and cultivated, running back from the rear of his 
house — a locality now traversed by some of the 
finest residence streets in town. 

At the other end of the thoroughfare was a public 
house built of logs by Aaron Brink about the year 
1795 and located near the mill-pond. 

In close proximity to the latter were a sawmill 
with carding-mill attached and a grist-mill on the 
site of the present one. 

Between the houses of Brown and Brink were 
four buildings, three on the west side and one on 
the east side of the highway. 

The first one on the west side thereof from 
Brown's was the new store of Dietz & Curtis located 
near where is now the Mrs. Bundy brick block ; the 
second was a store conducted by Peter Dinninny on 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 13 

the northwesterly corner of Main and Chestnut 
streets ; the third was a one-story frame-house on 
what was afterwards the Doctor Joseph Lindsay lot 
on the northwesterly corner of Main and Grove 
streets, while on the south side of the former thor- 
oughfare was a frame schoolhouse near what is now 
the junction of Main and Broad streets where the 
lady who gave me this information was receiving 
tuition as a little girl but seven years of age. 

Lastly I must not fail to mention the existence of 
a house still standing at the westerly base of Barn 
Hill near the mill-pond and at this time occu- 
pied by Nicholas McDonald. At the present day 
this is probably the oldest structure within the cor- 
poration and perhaps the town limits. Its only 
approximate rivals in point of antiquity are the 
Doctor Lindsay house and the one-story part of the 
John Cutshaw house which was formerly the original 
schoolhouse already referred to and was afterwards 
removed to its present location. 

Nicholas McDonald, accompanied by his sons 
James and Joseph, was a very early settler. He 
died about the year 1820, aged about ninety years. 
His sons evidently had great natural taste for the 
milling business as will appear in what I have to 
say later on. 

The Susquehanna River at this time had a 
channel in places entirely different and quite 
remote from its present bed. LTntil the great 



14 ONE ON T A MEMORIES 

freshet of August, 1816, it followed the line of the 
mill ditch of to-day from the present dam to the 
old dam which latter was located near what is called 
in modern times The Flume. 

Parallel and but a short distance from this old 
river bed on the west side was a causeway evidently 
made by man a long time before the advent of the 
white people. This elevated earthway over the low, 
wet ground, the early settlers found convenient for 
a highway and used the same for that purpose until 
it was washed away by the great flood referred to 
which diverted the route of Susquehanna's waters 
toward the base of South Mountain and to its pres- 
ent location. 

Then the dam was changed to its site of to-day. 

Oneonta's original grist-mill, built by John Van 
Derwerker about the year 1795, was located in an 
easterly direction from the present grist-mill. The 
dam to supply the water poNver for it was built 
across the Susquehanna River at a location in an 
easterly direction, the two being connected by the 
necessary race and the water having turned the 
wheel of the mill followed a southerly course until it 
rejoined the river. 

The subsequent history of the Van Derwerker 
mill I have never been able to ascertain, but it seems 
to me the natural inference is that it was Avithin the 
next few years either destroyed by fire or carried 
away by flood, for five years after its erection we find 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 15 

another mill of the same kind in operation but a 
few hundred yards from its site. It is fair to pre- 
sume that two grist-mills were hardly required in 
such close proximity to each other. 

The name of the individual under whose auspices 
that portion of the Oneonta mill-race of to-day 
extending from The Flume to the mill-pond was 
excavated, is another mystery for which I think, at 
this late period, we shall never receive any definite 
solution. I am inclined to think, however, that 
Joseph McDonald was the man and that the date 
which saw the completion of this work was close to 
the last days of the last century. 

In 1803, 'Squire James McDonald moved up from 
The Plains and the same year bought the mill prop- 
erty of his brother Joseph who subsequently went 
West. 

'Squire McDonald also bought a piece of land of 
eighty acres adjoining the mills and this last pur- 
chase included besides the land occupied afterwards 
by the house where the writer was born, nearly all 
of what is now Chestnut street near Main. He 
immediately became the leading citizen of the 
place and seemed to have a prophetic insight rela- 
tive to the ultimate importance and size of the little 
hamlet, for he said that some day it would be a city 
extending to The Plains. 

At this period there was a rude bridge across the 
Susquehanna a few rods up stream from the present 



16 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

iron bridge and the highway going south from the 
village in order to reach this bridge crossed the race 
a little below the mill and followed down the east 
bank of that stream to the river. 

Then the South Mountain was clad with the 
primeval hemlock forest and the river flat lands 
from the mills to The Plains were likewise covered 
with a similar growth mixed with some hard wood. 

Rattlesnakes were common, especially in tlie 
vicinity of The Rocks, where one Elihu Ward had 
acquired a reputation extending far and near as a 
successful snarer of the reptiles. 

In concluding this sketch of those primitive days, 
I will state that what are now called Main and 
Chestnut streets were at that time little better than 
" wood roads," and were used principally by lumber- 
men for getting logs to the sawmill. So sylvan 
were these highways in appearance that, according 
to the statement of an old settler, the forest trees 
on opposite sides of the main thoroughfare, grew so 
near each other that the branches of one tree inter- 
mingled with those of its neighbor across the way, 
forming an umbrageous arch for the passerby. 



^ ^ ^ 




CHAPTER II. 
1812 



HE LAPSE OF TIME since the year 1803 
was not without some changes for the little 
town. 'Squire McDonald was still the leading 
citizen, and the place was known far and near as 
McDonald's Mills, and occasionally as McDonald's 
Bridge. 

About the year 1804 one Schoolcraft erected a 
small structure for tavern purposes, where now 
stands the Susquehanna House, on the northeasterly 
corner of Main and Chestnut streets, this being the 
hamlet's second hostelry. About the same time 
Joseph Westcott built a store near where now stands 
the Free Will Baptist Church, on the corner of Main 
and Maple streets. 

About the year 1808 a road was made to The 
Plains, corresponding in location with what is now 
called River street. In the course of carrying on 
this work, the laborers, in removing some old logs, 
discovered the remains of a man whom it was 
thought was a murdered peddler, naturally creating 
great excitement in the little community. 



18 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The present grist-mill was built by 'Squire 
McDonald about the year 1810, and shortly after- 
wards he built the house still standing on the north- 
easterly corner of Main and River streets. He first 
occupied this house about the year 1812, and either 
immediately, or shortly afterwards, conducted it as 
a hotel. 

At this time a company of State Militia made 
the village its headquarters and 'Squire McDonald 
had been commissioned its Captain, eventually 
attaining the rank of Major in the service. He 
commonly drilled his troops at the junction of 
Main and Chestnut streets. 

There was then a small rivulet starting in swampy 
ground located a little in the rear of where is now 
the Windsor Hotel, at a place subsequently called 
The Frog Pond; thence running across Chestnut 
street and skirting the hill upon which is located the 
First Baptist Church, its waters eventually disap- 
peared in the swamp below the Doctor Lindsay 
house. In the winter time, this little water-course, 
freezing up, was much resorted to by boys and young 
men as a skating place. 

It was about this same period of time that a 
tannery was erected on the site now^ occupied by 
the Windsor Hotel and when excavations for the 
foundation of the latter building were made, in 
recent years, traces of the old vats were discovered. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 19 

In the 3^ear 1812 there was no church edifice in 
the settlement, the spiritual cravings of the com- 
munity being administered to by services held in 
Frederick Brown's barn. 

The forests on the adjacent hill slopes were then 
rapidly disappearing with the influx of new popu- 
lation from the eastern counties and New England. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER III. 
1823 

2^F A PERSON had retnrned to McDonald's Mills 
— about this time called Milfordville — in 1823 
after an absence of nine years, that person would 
have found the most conspicuous new contribution 
toward the building up of the place was AngelPs 
Hotel, afterwards the Oneonta House, which existed 
within the recollection of the writer. 

It was built on the northwesterly corner of Main 
and Chestnut streets by William Angell who had 
recently united his fortunes with those of the town 
and within his generation developed into the lead- 
ing citizen thereof which position he maintained 
for some years. 

Angell's Hotel was a two-story gable-roofed struc- 
ture with imposing looking columns on the end and 
side bordering the streets. 

The principal corner of the new caravansary was 
occupied in 1823 by David Fairchild as a storekeeper. 

As late as the year 1815, the opposite side of Main 
street from Angell's was unbuilt upon and its steep 
slope was covered with saw logs where young boys 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 21 

and girls resorted in order to secure the pitch by 
scraping the ends of the logs. 

In the year 1823 there had been constructed 
along the side of this bank a roadway, extending 
from what is now the foot of Grove street on the 
one hand to the site now occupied by Mendel 
Brothers' store on the other. Opposite Angell's 
Hotel and about ten feet below the top of the bank 
had been placed a long wooden watering trough 
close to the '' dugway " and where teamsters could 
water their horses. 

A person entering town from the opposite side of 
the river in 1823, would have crossed by an open 
bridge flanked by logs on either side leaving a 
passage-w^ay so narrow that but one wagon could 
pass over at a time. 

On entering the village what is now called River 
street would have been found a short distance from 
Main street but a passage-way through the woods, 
that part of town then being denominated '' down 
in the hemlocks." 

Passing the 'Squire McDonald house on the cor- 
ner, the next structure on the west side of Main 
street was a wood-colored frame house south of the 
present location of the railroad track, the next 
building on the same side of the street being the 
Lindsay house. The next structure was Angell's 
Hotel with a long shed for hitching horses beneath, 



22 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

extending all the way from the hotel down to what 
is now Grove street. 

Turning into Chestnut street and going up on 
the left hand side one came to a small wood-colored 
house at the foot of the first hill and the next build, 
ingswere the two log houses on the flat already 
referred to, while a little beyond these near the pres- 
ent residence of John Pardoe was another log house. 

Returning on the opposite side of the thorough- 
fare the first house was a frame structure owned by 
a man named Newkirk and located on what was 
afterwards the C. P. Huntington residence lot while 
on what was later the Solon Huntington residence 
lot was the log house of Asa Parish. 

The next building was a tannery owned by a Mr. 
Seeber, then followed -a wood-colored house and 
finally the small frame hotel on the northeasterly 
corner of Chestnut and Main streets. 

Turning into and up Main street, the next struc- 
tures on the left were the house and store owned by 
Jacob Dietz and located on what is now the Mrs. 
Cynthia Bundy lot, next came the Frederick Brown 
house and after that, the store formerly kept by 
Beers and St. John but then conducted by Eliakim 
K. Ford, — who moved to town about this time, — 
located on what is now tlie Free-Will Baptist church 
corner of Main and Maple streets. 

There were also several houses just across the 
Oneonta creek including the original Walling house. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 23 

Returning along the southerly side of Main street, 
the first building west of the bridge was perhaps a 
log house opposite the foot of Maple street ; next 
came the small unfinished Presbyterian church with 
rough improvised seats where divine service had 
been more or less held since 1816 ; the next struc- 
ture was perhaps the before mentioned schoolhouse 
with a frame distillery at the foot of the bank in the 
rear ; then the wood-colored house of Timothy Sabin 
located near where now stands the Mendel stone 
store, behind Mr. Sabin's house there being another 
distillery at this time I believe, and finally the build- 
ings at the mill-pond. 

There was at that time hardly a single painted 
building of any kind in the whole community. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER IV. 

f'HE ABOVE YEAR was a memorable one in 
the history of Oneonta (by which name the 
place was christened on the formation of the pres- 
ent township in 1830) from the fact that it witness- 
ed the completion of the Charlotte Turnpike. 

This highly improved public road constituted one 
section of a great highway, extending from Catskill 
on the Hudson river, to the southwestern part of 
the state. 

William Angeli was a prominent factor in build- 
ing this turnpike and he experienced considerable 
trouble the preceding year in securing for the enter- 
prise the requisite width of land along Main street. 
At that time the southerly frontage of the street was 
largely owned- by Jacob Dietz. 

Since 1823 Oneonta had been advancing, but in a 
very slow manner. Among the additions to her 
growth were the following buildings : the well- 
remembered frame house built and occupied by E. 
R. Ford, on lower Main street, as early as 1825, and 
his store building in the same vicinity ; a house on 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 25 

the westerly side of Main street, midway between 
the Lindsay house and where is now the raih'oad 
crossing; a one and a half story frame house owned 
by the wife of Johan Jost Dietz and located where 
now stands the Central Hotel; the office building of 
Samuel H. Case, M. D., erected in 1832 and the 
doctor's house, which was built two years later; 
the carpenter shop of Wright Stoddard, located on 
the present site of the Doctor H. A. Hamilton brick 
house; a carpenter shop and house on the present site 
of the Windsor Hotel and a house built by Timothy 
Sabin in 1832, on what was afterwards the Solon 
Huntington residence lot and in which house the 
writer was born. At this time there were still 
standing two log houses on Main street, near the 
Oneonta creek bridge, while two or three similar 
structures still remained on Chestnut street. 

The distillery under the bank, near the foot of 
Chestnut street, was then being conducted by Jacob 
Newkirk. 

About this period there were also erected several 
of the frame stores on the southerly side of Main 
street and which eventually deteriorated into part 
and parcel of the old famous rookeries that in after 
years proved such an eye-sore to people approaching 
town from over the river. 

In an interesting conversation with Doctor S. H. 
Case, he informed me that the Susquehanna House 
was built in 1829 as a two-story private residence. 



26 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

He furthermore stated that his marriage — occur- 
ring in 1834 — took place in the parlor of the aforesaid 
house, the same apartment that was a little later 
occupied by Carleton and R. J. Emmons as a store 
and which eventually became the bar-room of the 
hotel. Toward the close of our conversation, the 
Doctor said that it seemed to him there was more 
timbered land in the vicinity of Oneonta to-day than 
was the case when he adopted it as his residence, 
over sixty years ago. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER V. 

1840 
Between the years 1834 and 1840 Oneon- 



ta enjoyed a period of uncommon prosperity, 
following the completion of the Charlotte Turnpike. 
This may, in an architectural sense applied locally, 
be termed the stone period, for there is hardly a 
building in Oneonta to-day, whose w^alls were con- 
structed all the way up to the roof of stone, but 
what was either built, or commenced, within this 
period. 

The first of these stone structures was the Fritts 
Building, erected opposite the Susquehanna House 
about 1835, and still standing. The second was the 
Emmons Building, erected about 1838 and which 
stands next to the Susquehanna House; then fol- 
lowed the stores erected by E. R. Ford, Esq. and Solon 
Huntington, the former building, which stood upon 
the southwesterly corner of Main and Broad streets, 
having been destroyed by fire some years ago: while 
the latter structure is still standing, it being now 
the well-known store of the Mendel Brothers.^ 

There was also, within the recollection of many, 
a small building of stone just east of the Blend 



28 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Block and which was occupied by Silas Sullivan in 
the capacity of postmaster during the Rebellion. I 
presume this building was erected about the time of 
the '' stone period." 

But by far the most expensive and imposing edi- 
fice of this material in town was the residence 
still standing, of the late E. R. Ford, Esq., erected 
about 1S40 and which for two generations was the 
pride of the village and a conspicuous land-mark 
of this section of the Susquehanna Valley. 

Among the older frame houses of Oneonta, still 
remaining, is the Fritts residence on Chestnut street, 
built about the beginning of the period under 
review. 

In the year 1840, R. W. Hopkins conducted the 
furniture business and a cabinet-shop where now 
stands the Windsor Hotel and Timothy Sabin carried 
on the general merchandise business at the foot of 
Chestnut street, while E. R. Ford, Esq., was about to 
move into his new stone store. 

Somewhat prior to 1840, Academy street from 
Chestnut and Grove street from Main were opened 
to a junction with each other and the Academy 
street portion of the highway so constituted bore the 
rural and significant appellation of Milk street, while 
the Grove street portion was called Church street. 

The public school was then located on the latter 
thoroughfare while the Baptists had erected for 
themselves a church near by and the same location 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 29 

has remained thus consecrated by them down to the 
present day. 

My father and mother adopted Oneonta as their 
home in 1840, the same year they were married and 
the lot upon which their first residence together was 
located is the same which contained their last 
earthly home together — the same which witnessed 
their separation with the death of my father after a 
union of fifty years. 

I trust the old ground may remain in our posses- 
sion for many years to come. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER VI. 

1849 

^p^HE PRECEDING NINE years were not 

^- marked by any great clianges in the physical, 
commercial or social importance of Oneonta. 

In a religious sense there was perhaps some 
strengthening, for the Methodists had erected their 
first house of worship within the limits of the village 
and like the Baptists and Presbyterians were now 
enjoying regular Sunday service. 

The first church building of the Methodists in 
Oneonta village, as still many remember, was loca- 
ted a little back of the brow of the hill that is 
situated in the rear of their present brick edifice 
and likewise faced Chestnut street with its west side 
on a parallel line with Church street. 

Each of the four corners of the tower of the old 
church building -was surmounted by a sharp-pointed 
ornament of wood, shaped like a pyramid, whose 
sides in rising from the base receded but very 
slightly from the perpendicular. 

At the same time while the churches Avere show- 
ing more vigor, Oneonta continued to maintain the 
reputation it had borne from its infancy of being 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 31 

the resort of an unduly large vicious element for a 
place of the size. 

This stigma was not owing to the depravity of any 
large class residing in the village so much as it was 
applicable to the Goths and Vandals who now and 
then swarmed into town from the outlying country 
with the oft - recurring determination to capture 
'' Klipknocky." 

Among the more noted " terrors " were several 
brothers named Murphy, descendants of the famous 
ancestor Timothy who, before settling in this vicinity, 
had won distinction as one of Morgan's Riflemen of 
the Revolutionary War and as a daring Indian fighter 
as well. 

One of this notorious family received well-merited 
punishment at the hands of a relative of the writer's 
on an occasion where the former had started out to 
terrorize the town. 

In connection with the quarrelsome reputation of 
the Murphy s, I am reminded of the following inci- 
dent narrated me by D. M. Campbell, Esq., who 
witnessed the occurrence. 

It was in the year 1847, and the circus of Rivers 
and Darius was exhibiting on the lot where is now 
located the residence of Meigs Case, M. D. In the 
course of the performance, the clown had reached a 
point where, in the portrayal of some humorous inci- 
dent, it was necessary for him to prostrate himself 
and counterfeit the appearance of one dead. 



32 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

This he did to the enthusiasm of the audience, but 
in the midst of the merriment and before he had 
left his recumbent position, one of the Murphys who 
was present w^ith his kinsmen concluded to supple- 
ment the humor of the occasion by taking an active 
part in the proceedings himself, so pulling up a 
small tuft of grass he threw it with more or less soil 
attached into the clown's face. 

The latter immediately arose, located his man and 
awaited a more suitable opportunity for retaliation- 

At the conclusion of the performance, the clown 
called together some of the circusmen and, arming 
themselves with clubs, they started forth in quest of 
the aggressor. 

Having reached a point on Main street at the foot 
of the Baptist church hill they found one of the 
Murphys reclining under a wagon by the roadside. 
Several of the circusmen immediately made a terri- 
ble onslaught and unmercifully belabored the man 
while the other showmen discovering another Mur- 
phy near by, chased him over the high, perpen- 
dicular bank below the office of the late General 
Burnside. 

In the year 1842, upon application of certain 
freeliolders. Main street from River to what since 
became the south line of the railroad crossing, was 
straightened and moved westward to a line near if 
not on its present location, necessitating the filling 
in of much swampy ground. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 33 

111 or about the same year, the first board side- 
walk along the westerly side of lower Main street 
was laid by Harvey Baker from River street to 

Grove street. 

Another improvement of this period was the 
opening up of Church street to a point perhaps 
fifteen rods beyond High street, while the latter was 
commenced and extended toward West street at the 

same time. 

In 1849 my uncle, C. P. Huntington, having been 
associated with my father for several years in the 
general merchandise business at Oneonta, concluded 
to locate in the new Eldorado that was then attract- 
ing the attention of the whole world. A number 
of the young men of town left simultaneously with 
the same destination in view. 

At this time Oneonta's most serious drawback 
and, in fact, that of the whole section of the State 
surrounding was the lack of adequate means of 
communication with the outside world, but the 
people were now approaching the end of their leth- 
argy, and awakening to a full realization of their 

isolation. 

Already the opening hours of a new dispensation 
-were breathing faint and low" and although her 
fondest hopes for a period of many disappointing 
years failed to reach their fruition, the little 
village was on the right track and, ultimately, was 
enabled to attain her long deferred and remarkable 
prosperity. 



CHAPTER VII. 

1860 



A. 



I" I HE LEADING PUBLIC improvement in 

^' Oneonta, for a little over a decade, was the 
opening up of Dietz street (which for many years 
commonly bore the sobriquet of ''Shanghai") supple- 
mented by the erection of many houses thereon. 

The village had undoubtedly received a quicken- 
ing impulse through the favorable outlook for its 
proposed railroad, although the latter was subjected 
to many unexpected, vexatious and prolonged delays. 
Still, the enterprising and far-seeing capitalists, 
Ford and Goodyear had faith enough to put large 
sums of money in the enterprise and the j^eople had 
faith in the two men. 

In 1853 Oneonta's first permanent newspaper was 
founded in the Ilerald, with whose inception and 
early history the name of L. P. Carpenter will 
always be prominently associated. 

In 1857 the three churches of the village had 
received an addition to their number through the 
faith, enterprise and zeal of the Free Will Baptists. 

To the community at large, however, the railroad 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 35 

question was alwaj^s the subject of paramount inter- 
est in the discussions and alternately arousing the 
hopes and fears of the people. So was it to con- 
tinue for some years more until the first faint dis- 
tant notes of the locomotive sent glad tidings of a 
new era down the valley of the Susquehanna. 



^ ^ ^ 



1860 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FIRST SHADOW. 

jp WAS BORN at Oneonta on the 21st day of July, 
^ 1856. 

My recollection extends back, perhaps, to the 
Autumn of 1859, at which time I think I saw our 
hired men milking cows at the foot of the orchard 
hill, but of this I am not positive. 

The 10th of April, 1860, was a sad day in our 
household and with that period my early recollections 
cease to be obscure and thenceforward are more or 
less prominent and distinct. 

Upon that last mentioned date, Death entered my 
father's family for the third time in its history, in 
this instance Howard, my oldest brother, being the 
victim. 

He was sixteen years old when he died and 
although my remembrance of him is but slight, I 
know from many reports that he was an uncom- 
monly exemplary boy. Quiet and unassuming in 
his tastes, ever ready to do a favor or kindness to 
any one, it is not too much to say that Howard was 
well liked by all who knew him. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 37 

He was of a meditative and religious cast of mind 
and when very young would often stand and marvel 
at the mighty mysteries of God's handiwork, as 
indicated by the stars of heaven. 

The Evening Star seemed to carry with it a 
peculiar interest to Howard's mind and for many 
minutes at a time would he stand and gaze at it 
through the front dining-room window of our former 
house. 

I have heard my mother say that sometimes when 
she is looking at this star, it is with a feeling that 
she is in the presence of my brother who died so 
long ago. 

The morning that Howard's spirit took its flight 
to another world, the summons came with the 
earliest indications of the dawn and the silence of 
the room seemed more pronounced owing to the 
solitary notes of a robin just outside the window, 
announcing the advent of another and to the dying 
boy a greater day. How natural is it then even at 
this late period, that the early morning notes of the 
robin should carry with them so mournful a signifi- 
cance to our mother. 

I remember seeing Howard's remains in the coffin, 
as it rested on two supports in our old parlor and 
near the front door. I was not old enough to 
appreciate the dread import of that occasion, but I 
know I was impressed by the awful mystery sur- 
rounding that quiet form which had never been 



38 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

animated by an impulse toward his little brother 
that breathed aught but affection. 

Then came the funeral, but of this I remember 
nothing. I only know that I passed the day at the 
residence of the late E. R. Ford, Esq. and was duly 
impressed by the appearance of an open fire-place, 
something I had never seen before. 



^ ^ ^ 



1860 



CHAPTER TX. 
THE McCRANEY CASE. 

Jp REMEMBER, on the morning of May 10, 
^ 1860, that the mysterious death of Huldah Ann 
MeCraney, who had just passed away, at the age of 
seventeen years, was the topic of conversation in 
our family. I presume that this was the case in the 
family of every resident of our then secluded little 
village. 

Murder most foul, cold blooded and atrocious, 
had evidently been committed in our midst and 
suspicion, with straight and undeviating finger, was 
pointing to but one person as the perpetrator of the 
awful deed; that person a woman and stepmother to 
the victim; that victim a young and inoffensive girl. 

I remember what a thrill of excitement passed 
through the town, as accumulating evidence began 
to throw a deeper and darker shadow across the 
threshold of that house than even Death itself could 
make. 

Within its clouded precincts, calm and unper- 
turbed moved the being toward whom the popular 
wrath was tending, apparently unconscious of her 



40 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

peril, and if aware, indifferent still to all. Her face 
maintained its accustomed impassiveness, and her 
fathomless eyes preserved unchanged their look 
inscrutahle. 

****** 

In the year 1858 there came to our village a 
Mrs. Baker, accompanied by but one person, her 
daughter and only child Lucia. Mrs. Baker was a 
woman of perhaps more than ordinary intelligence 
and Lucia a girl of about fifteen summers, was 
bright of mind and prepossessing in appearance. 
They immediately took rooms at the Oneonta House, 
and were well received by the better grades of vil- 
lage society. 

John McCraney, a man employed by my father, 
being a widower with two daughters, became greatly 
interested in Mrs. Baker and finally married her. 
The recent widow and her child then took up their 
abode with him at his house, still standing, on 
Dietz street. In about a year thereafter came the 
tragedy with which old Oneonta people are familiar. 

'On Sunday morning, April 29, I860, Huldah 
Ann McCraney had made her usual preparations for 
attending church and passing out of her father's 
house sat down on the front steps, being suddenly 
taken ill and unable to proceed. She was assisted 
into the house and went to bed, never in her mortal 
frame to rise again. She grew worse gradually and 
her symptoms were of such a nature that her phys- 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 41 

ician was somewhat mystified at first, for altliougli 
the indications went to show that Huldah Ann 
was under the influence of poison, why should he 
have immediately suspected that murder had taken 
root in that quiet household and was developing 
night and day, with such unflagging haste that 
already it had hopelessly encircled the poor victim 
and was drawing her closer and ever closer in its 
fatal embrace? 

Immediately following her death and perhaps 
even before the same,, reports of sinister complexion 
were flying thick and fast. Arsenic was found 
entered on the books of the village apothecary 
against the name of McCraney and this, too, of 
recent dates. 

Some people recollected the mysterious deaths, 
in an adjoining town, possibly from poison, that 
occurred eight or ten years before, in a house of 
which at that time this suspected woman was found 
to have been an inmate. Public sentiment com- 
pelled an examination of. the remains of the dead 
and buried girl. Poison was revealed and upon 
the adduction of the damning proof followed the 
indictment by the Grand Jury. 

Still, although under unceasing surveillance, she 
moved to and fro, impassively as of old, apparently 
oblivious to public choler now so dangerously 
aroused, she heeded it not, but followed her accus- 
tomed household paths undeviatingly as fate; alike 



42 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

careless and indifferent to things present, or Avhat- 
e'er to her the future might betide. 

^ t^ :^<: ;!< :^ -l^ 

The day of her departure for Cooperstown to meet 
her trial in the courts is well remembered by many 
people still living in Oneonta. 

Early in the morning the pre-arranged signal was 
received by certain village boys and young men 
that the time had arrived for action and almost 
simultaneously the officers of the law, accompanied 
by the McCraney family, took carriages and started 
for Cooperstown with the prisoner. 

As they got fairly under way the church bells 
began to ring accompanied by the firing of guns, 
arousing the whole town. Sundry citizens, dressing 
quickly, hastened forth from their dwellings with 
pails in hand for the purpose of extinguishing fire, 
but were soon undeceived regarding the significance 
of this midnight tumult. 

On the Oneonta creek bridge obstructions had 
been placed and Willis Snow having tried in vain 
to clear the passage way, the carriages were sud- 
denly turned and the party made their egress from 
town via Maple street. Other reports state that the 
party made its exit via Main street, the impediments 
on the bridge having been removed. 

Upon the acquittal of Mrs. McCraney, at the 
end of her trial, public indignation ran higher 
than ever. A reception committee was formed by 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 43 

certain young men and an effigy of the woman was 
made and hung from a tree in front of her residence. 
Having returned to Oneonta at night-fall, she 
entered the house, having first passed under the 
hanging figure in the tree. The village boys then 
resorted to the hill slope in the rear of the house 
and rained a torrent of stones upon the roof and 
sides of the hated domicile. 

Finally, upon the suggestion of one Burley, certain 
boys secured a can of turpentine and proceeded to 
saturate the effigy, whereupon the torch was applied 
and the burning of the suspended image followed, 
amid the shoutings and execrations of the assembled 
people. 

A little later Mrs. McCraney was again indicted 
on suspicion of her connection with the other 
mysterious deaths already referred to and was again 
acquitted. 

Slie remained in Oneonta several years afterwards 
and shortly following the death of her husband 
moved with her daughter Lucia to Nebraska. 

John McCraney maintained his wife's innocence 
of the crime alleged, to the last and in the face of an 
unanimous public sentiment to the contrary. 



^ ^ ^ 



1861 



CHAPTER X. 
AN OLD HOUSE. 

WHE OLD C. P. Huntington house that stood on 
the corner of Chestnut and Church streets 
appears very far back in the vista of ray memory. 

As most Oneonta people know, it was a square- 
shaped one story and attic structure with a piazza 
extending along its whole front and partly down 
its sides, this piazza being flanked by fluted round 
wooden pillars that reached from foundation to roof. 

There was nothing uncommon about the rooms 
on the first floor, but the second or attic floor, 
reached by a rather steep stairway, comprised four 
sleeping rooms, each opening from a square central 
room at the head of the stairs. 

This upper floor was lighted from the windows 
on the sides of the observatory surmounting the 
center of the roof which, while providing plenty of 
light for the middle room, left the side chambers in 
semi-obscurity. Each of these sleeping-rooms, how- 
ever, had a swing window opening directly over a 
trap door in the ceiling of the piazza and by means 
of these places, when open, the natural darkness of 
the rooms was further modified. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 45 

Many years ago a lady told me in California of a 
startling experience that once befell her in this 
house, happening way back in the forties, before I 
was born. 

She stated that while visiting there at a certain 
time, her entertainers were suddenly and unavoid- 
ably called away from town for a day or two and 
that before their departure she had decided to remain 
alone in the house during their absence. It was in 
cold wintry weather they left and the ground was 
deeply covered with snow. 

During the balance of the day, time passed rapidly 
and she had no nervous fears over being left alone 
in the house until lighting the lamps upon the 
approach of night. 

Then, for some reason inexplicable to herself, her 
mind became filled with certain vague and indefin- 
able apprehensions, a feeling that some unseen 
danger was menacing. She endeavored to control 
herself and to feel they were but idle fears, but so 
strong were her misgivings, the doors and windows 
were locked and fastened that night with far more 
precaution than was usually observed. 

She was to occupy a bedroom on the lower floor 
and, presently retiring thereto, for a long time sought 
sleep in vain, but eventually lost consciousness in a 
degree. 

It was some hours afterwards that a sound aroused 
her with a sudden start and made her instinctively 



46 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

feel that it was caused by something or somebody 
moving in the close vicinity. Listening in great 
nervous suspense, she heard the repetition of the 
sound and found that it came from some one 
attempting to unlock an outside door. 

In extreme terror she got out of bed and hur- 
riedly dressed herself. In the mean time, were faintly 
heard the stealthy steps of a man as he went from 
place to place on the piazza, trying every window and 
door and indicating a persistent determination to 
get within. Then, for a moment, the sound of his 
steps ceased and directly she knew that the fastenings 
of each rear window and door w^ere being put to 
the test, but all successfull}^ withstood the strain. 

Then the man was heard again on the piazza and, 
taking some heavy flat-irons from the kitchen stove, 
she went up into the attic Avith the intention of 
dropping them down through a trap-door in the 
piazza ceiling on his head. This she failed to 
have the courage to attemi:)t, however and the 
would-be robber below, all unconscious of her pres- 
ence, did not abandon his nefarious designs 
entirely until warned by the light of approaching 
day. 

To a nervous and unprotected woman it was truly 
compressing the fears of an ordinary life-time into 
a space of but few hours duration. 

My first recollections of this old house are asso- 
ciated with my grandmother Huntington and aunt 



ON EON T A MEMORIES 47 

Ellen M. Huntington (who were occupying it about 
the year 1860), and the profuse lilacs that bloomed 
in the yard. 

My grandmother used to delight me, from a very 
youthful period of life, with stories of her own early 
days in Connecticut. She was a woman of beauti- 
ful disposition and I can truly say I never saw a 
frown on her face. 

My aunt Ellen soon afterwards married the Kev. 
I. E. Gates, a young Baptist minister, w^ho had 
recently graduated at Hamilton University and 
shortly afterwards they moved far out into the West. 

In the spring of 1861 I think, Van Amburgh's 
circus and menagerie visited Oneonta and the writer 
attended the same accompanied by his grandmother 
Saunders. The tents were pitched on the Ingalls' 
property at the corner of West and Chestnut streets. 
I remember it was an extremely rainy day. 



^ ^ ^ 



1861 



CHAPTER XI. 

A LONG JOURNEY. 

Pn the above year we received a visit from my 
^ mother's father, Doctor Henry Saunders, of 
Burnt Hills, Saratoga County. He was an aged and 
greatly respected physician and a man of highly 
informed mind. 

I was inclined to stand in great awe of my grand- 
father and my respect for him was not lessened 
when he presented me with sundry silver coins, 
which were quite a rarity in those war times. 

The same year referred to, mother and I accom- 
panied my grandfather on his return to Burnt Hills, 
traveling by private conveyance as far as Fort Plain, 
stopping the first night at the house of Mr. Sutliff in 
Cherry Valley. 

At Fort Plain we took the New York Central cars 
for Schenectady and arriving there remained all 
night at the home of my aunt, Mrs. Daniel Van 
Vranken, who lived on Barrett street. 

The brick houses, brick sidewalks, and paved 
streets of this ancient Dutch town made a profound 
impression upon the mind of the green country boy 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 49 

who was completely awed by what seemed to him the 
grandeur and splendor of modest old *' Dorp." 

I here became attached with more than cousinly 
ardor to a little girl-relative but was too bashful to 
indicate it much. 

The Fourth of July we spent at my grandfather's, 
eight miles from Schenectady and in the evening 
had fireworks at the house of my uncle, E. D. 
Saunders, who likewise lived at Burnt Hills. 

Among the interesting features of my grand- 
father's home — on the site of which there had been 
a house prior to the Revolutionary War— and which 
made a lasting impression on my mind was a little 
brook that flowed through the premises and this 
brook was spanned by a rustic bridge near which I 
was very fond of fishing. 

The driveway that lead from the street to the side 
door of the house was shaded in summer time by 
rows of maples. At the back end of this lane was 
a wooden headboard located over a grave near the 
point of an angle made by the house and the lane 
fence and upon this headboard was an inscription 
in Latin, commencing "Hie jacet Dandy," which I 
soon ascertained was meant to be in memory of a 
favorite dog that died about that time. 

In the dooryard, on the opposite side of the house, 
was the largest elm tree I ever saw and not far from 
it was another mystery to me in the shape of a sun 
dial. 



50 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Before returning home, we visited the house of 
an uncle of mine by marriage — Doctor E. M. Wade, 
of Watervliet, Albany County. 

At the house of his father, the venerable Doctor 
James Wade, I remember seeing at this time one of 
the farm employes fall into a cistern by the sudden 
giving way of the flooring over the same. 

The unfortunate man's name, I believe, was 
Perkins and he was immediately pulled out, not 
much the worse for his wetting. 

But to return to Oneonta, after this little digres- 
sion I will also invite the reader back to a period 
earlier in the year and endeavor to draw a little 
picture, such as it is, of my first experience at 
school. 



^ ^ ^ 



186S 



CHAPTER XII. 

BEGINNING OF SCHOOL LIFE. 

Jp RECOLLECT distinctly the morning I first went 
^ to school. 

Father had some business to transact with a man 
named Swart, wdio lived near the Slade farms and 
after breakfast of that eventful day, I got into the 
buggy and accompanied him over the river. We 
were absent from the village only a short time and 
upon returning home, I found Charlie Pardee at our 
house and straightway accompanied him to the halls 
of knowledge. 

The schoolhouse was located on what is now^ called 
Grove street and was attended by perhaps seventy- 
five pupils. 

The building was a two-story wood-colored frame 
structure, located three or four rods back from the 
street. 

There was a largre wood-house situated a few feet 
farther west and fronting about on a line wdth the 
rear foundation wall of the schoolhouse. 

The ground in front of the latter was used by 
the boys for recreation purposes,^ it being flanked 



52 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

on either side by a picket fence and open to the 
street in front. The favorite games were '^ Bull in 
the Ring," '' Cracking the Whip," and '' Pullaway." 

Nearly opposite the play-ground was the First 
Baptist Church building with sheds located near by 
on the north and west sides for hitching horses. 
On the upper cross-beams of these sheds were stored 
long red ladders belonging to the village fire depart- 
ment. Directly under these beams were lower ones 
dividing each shed into numerous stalls. The first 
of these lower beams, commencing at Grove street, 
was located quite high from the ground while the 
ones following were less and less high in quite regu- 
lar gradation as one went further and further from 
the street. 

Now these lower beams and the horizontal ladders 
stretched over the upper ones constituted the gym- 
nasium of our school in those rather primitive days 
and a boy's importance in a physical sense w^as some- 
w4iat governed by the facility with which he would 
either vault these lower beams or swing himself 
• along the ladders with his hands, his feet in the 
mean time dangling in space. The small boys could 
vault but a few of the beams, while it was a proud 
day for older lads when, by placing their hands on 
top of the highest beam, they could clear the same? 
touching it with no other parts of iheir bodies. 

Another source of amusement to the school boys 
was attempting to throw stones over the steeple of 
the church referred to. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 53 

There were two instruction - rooms in the old 
schoolhouse, and a portion of the time there were 
two teachers, one presiding upstairs, while the other 
conducted the downstairs school. 

The lower schoolroom had a small hall-way in 
front. From this hall-way a rather steep flight of 
stairs, turning at right angles part way up ran to a 
small landing on the second floor, which answered 
for the ante-room of the upstairs school. These two 
little outer rooms contained each a pail of drinking 
water for the use of the pupils, while on the walls 
were rov\'S of hooks or nails to accommodate hats, 
cloaks, scarfs, etc. 

In the front part of each schoolroom was located, 
besides the desk of the teacher, a rather long " wood 
stove " surmounted by a sheet-iron drum of about 
the same length. On each side of each schoolroom 
was a single row of desks running from near the 
front to the extreme rear of the apartment, while 
projecting into the rooms from the middle of the 
rear wall was a chimney extending from the ground 
up to and through the roof. On either side of this 
chimney was also located a desk in both school- 
rooms, while in front of the chimney and back of 
the stoves were sundry benches for the use of small 
children. Near each teacher's chair was a black- 
board and perhaps a wall map or two, this complet- 
ing a full account of the furniture, I believe. 

The desks of the boys which w^ere all located on 
the side of each schoolroom towjird the west, had 



54 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

been hacked, cut and generally mutilated with jack- 
knives, while the plastered ceilings were ornamented 
with small paper wads which adventuresome urchins 
had prepared with their mouths and duly snapped 
upward when in a sufficiently moist condition to 
stick. If this could be done without attracting the 
attention of the teacher it was considered a feat 
worthy of emulation. 

Miss D. Sullivan Avas my first school teacher and 
for the following five years commencing with the 
spring of 1863, I received school tuition from no 
other person. This confidence my parents had in 
her character and ability, I feel was fully warranted 
as I look back to that portion of my life with the 
judgment of matured years. 

At the time I first entered school, Miss Sullivan 
had the upper room and I was placed on one of the 
low benches back of the stove. 

The leading text-books of our school in those 
days, as I remember, were Sanders' Readers and 
Spelling Book, Clark's Grammar, Colton's Geogra- 
phy and Tliompson's Arithmetics. 

The first reading and spelling classes I was ever 
in comprised Adna Brazee, some one else whose 
name I have now forgotten and the writer. I 
remember when we took position it was always on a 
line with one of the cracks in the floor on the east 
or girls' side of the room and about even with the 
front of the stove. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 55 

I was very diffident in the presence of girls and 
when detected in mischief, the penalty oftentimes 
was for me to go and sit awhile with one of the 
opposite sex. It was punishment that kept me in 
the line of good behavior for a considerable time 
afterwards. 

I think it was in my first term at school that I 
had the most severe case of nose bleed I ever expe- 
rienced. After it was checked in a great degree, 
two of the girls escorted me home. This event 
seems a very long time ago, for I was only seven 
years old at that period of my life. The lapse of 
time is unheeded by the two young girls who took 
me home, for they have long since gone to a far 
country where time is reckoned not. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS. 

PART I. 

VM^ MONG early personal recollections, I recall 
J^' K. my association with two little girls, the 
daughters of a man named Adsit who was employed 
by father and occupied the upper part of a tene- 
ment house of ours, located at the base of the side 
hill orchard on the Dietz street level. 

This house, still standing, was built I think 
about the year 1850 and was commonly called the 
barnyard house, on account of its proximity to the 
quarter indicated by the name. 

I remember but vaguely the two little Adsit 
girls and one of the very few things I can definitely 
associate in my mind with them is the fact of their 
having been in possession, at that period, of a little 
movable open wooden cupboard, the base containing 
perhaps three shelves, each about one foot wide, while 
the upper portion comprised maybe three more 
shelves, each about eight inches wide. 

The two little girls and the writer were fond of 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 57 

"keeping house" with this cupboard and many of 
their childish treasures found a receptacle therein. 
This was a long time ago and for a generation 
and a half the Adsit children have been to me only 
a memory. 

I think the next permanent impression upon my 
mind was made by the death of Mrs. Hezekiah 
Watkins. I remember the funeral of this highly 
respected lady at the old Watkins homestead on the 
corner of Chestnut and Academy streets. 

The next memorable event was my coming into 
possession of a pair of red zouave pants, about 
the time of the opening of the Kebellion and during 
the same period I rejoiced in the possession of a 
pair of copper-toed shoes. 

Another recollection of this time was the excite- 
ment attending the enlistment of soldiers for the 
war, which was several fold increased by the receipt 
of the intelligence of the first Bull Run disaster. 

About this period I began occasionally to visit mj 
cousins Frank and Charlie Pardee, who were living 
in the house on the west bank of the Oneonta creek 
on the north side of Main street, close to the bridge. 
Here I became acquainted with Charlie Baldwin, 
son of the Rev. Wm. Baldwin, the Presbyterian 
minister. 

My first boy playmate in that part of the village 
where I lived was Arthur Sullivan and through 
him I became acquainted with Howard Farmer and 



58 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Eddie Carpenter, with all of whom I played more 
or less in the early part of the sixties. 

In Mr. Sullivan's front yard was a large apple 
tree (still standing) and from one of its limhs was 
suspended a swing which the writer and his com- 
panions made more or less use of. 

Another source of amusement to us was the game 
of "Chickeny, chickeny, craney crow." 

I think the first place I ever went fishing was on 
the flat where Mechanic street now is. At that 
time there were neither streets, railroad, nor build- 
ings of any kind (except the old distillery shell) 
between the Main street stores and the Mill Ditch 
and this flat, swampy ground was traversed by a 
rivulet which afforded some little sport in the 
piscatorial line. 

My first skating was on the old Frog Pond which 
was situated close to the livery stable that stands in 
the rear of the Windsor Hotel. This pond has long 
since disappeared and was doubtless unknown to all 
born in the present generation. 



^ ^ ^ 



1S6A 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FIRST RETURN TO THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL. 

J THINK IT WAS at the beginning of the win- 
^ ter term of 1864—1865, that Miss Sullivan 
discontinued her private school on Dietz street and 
resumed her former position in the old District 
School. 

The same winter the boys derived a great deal of 
pleasure in an exhilarating sport practiced by them 
in the front First Baptist church-yard and this is 
the way it was done. 

The church-yard had as it does to this day a some- 
what abrupt fall, commencing at the front steps of 
the edifice and extending nearly all the way down 
to Main street. The boys, by constantly sliding on 
their feet down this slope when covered with snow 
and each following in the tracks made by his prede- 
cessor, had worn two deep parallel grooves several 
inches apart. 

One cold evening, shortly afterwards, some enter- 
prising urchins had carried several pails of water to 
the top of the hill and poured the contents into the 
grooves. Zero weather then promptly finished the 



60 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

work for the boys, so that the following morning 
they could not only slide down the icy lines with 
greatly accelerated speed, but with, what was equally 
attractive to them, an increased element of danger in 
the line of a bad fall in case of accident. 

In the winter season, I usually carried my lunch 
to school, and when the noon hour arrived, ate with 
a zest that does not seem to characterize my appetite 
in these later days. 

It was about this period I used to play a great 
deal with Charlie Hopkins and was inclined to 
look upon him with more than ordinary interest 
from the fact that he had lived in Kansas, which 
stamped him in my mind as having been a great 
traveller. I think about the same time Charlie 
Smith made a trip to Chicago to visit a relative and 
this placed him likewise on a pedestal in the estima- 
tion of his fellows. 

Among the recess recreations indulged in by the 
boys was forming sides of about equal numbers and 
after taking position in two parallel lines facing each 
other, having a contest of snow-balling. AVhen 
a member of one side was hit he joined his 
opponents and was soon zealously working against 
his former comrades. In the course of a little while 
the superior marksmanship of one party or tlie 
other would leave not a solitary human target in 
the opposite field. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1865 

^OR THE FIVE YEARS immediately preceding 
1865, Oneonta could show but little growth. 
Remote from railroad facilities during most of this 
time, it was indeed an out of the way place. 

The village in the above year, before the coming 
of the railroad, comprised of its present one hun- 
dred streets only the following : Main, Chestnut, 
Maple, Dietz, West, River and Church, High, Acad- 
emy and Grove streets in part only, the four latter 
being extended in later years. 

The business quarter of Main street comprised at 
that time on the northerly side, a blacksmith shop, 
two frame hotels, a stone store, a frame marble shop' 
a one-story frame public hall, and several frame' 
houses. The southerly side of the street besides a 
blacksmith shop had several stone stores, a frame 
carriage factory, a frame engine-house, likewise a 
cabinet shop, one or two houses and quite a num- 
ber of stores all of the same material and looking 
much the worse for wear. These latter structures 
were usually two stories high in /ront, while on 



62 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

account of being built on the slope of a bank were 
three or four stories high in the rear. 

Main, Dietz, Chestnut, Academy, River and 
perhaps Maple, were the only streets that could 
boast of even a little wooden sidewalk and this 
was usually confined to one side of each street. 

The roadbed of Main street was extremely irregu- 
lar with no curbing, while its surface contained 
many ruts and hollow places in which the water 
would settle and remain for a considerable time after 
each rain. 

In front of the residence lot of E. R. Ford, Esq., 
Main street dropped down into a little valley to such 
an extent that a person standing at the foot of 
Chestnut street would lose sight of the Cooperstown 
stage entirely when it reached that portion of the 
thoroughfare. 

The old Angell hotel was called the Oneonta 
House and the name was painted on the Chestnut 
street gable end above the pillars with a great 
space reserved between '' Oneonta " and " House " 
for the insertion of " Railroad " when the proper time 
arrived. This, I believe, was either the idea of Mr. 
Angell or John M. Watkins, and the missing word 
was eventually inserted by their successor, Charles 
W. Lewis. 

The Susquehanna House had a large, conspicuous 
square-shaped swinging sign projecting from the 
principal corner of the hotel and containing a 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 63 

picture of an eagle with extended wings, while its 
feet were resting on a representation of our globe, 
beneath which, at the low^er end of the sign, was let- 
tered the name of the hotel. 

There w^ere two or three fires on Chestnut street 
during this period, the only one which I personally 
recollect, occurring in January, 1865 and resulting 
in the total loss of the house of Mrs. Ingalls, near 
West street. 

On Academy street, near the Burton house, there 
was a well beneath the middle of the sidewalk, w^iich 
a portion of the time furnished drinking water for 
the children in the district school. 

There was a public watering place for horses on 
West street near Chestnut, the trough projecting 
from Colonel Snow's yard and being supplied from 
the two little spring houses on the slope of Snow 
Hill, as many will remember. The principal water- 
ing place for horses, however, was the round, open 
tank in the rear of the Oneonta House and 
approachable from both streets. This tank was also 
used to cool off sundry citizens who occasionally 
allow^ed rum, gin or whiskey to get the best of them. 

But the dawn of a new era had now arrived and 
old Oneonta was passing away. 



1865 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS. 

PART II. 

Ml T the time of which I now write, the late 
Jlf^ A. Potter C. Burton, an old and respected 
citizen of Oneonta had his jewelry store in a one- 
story building located in front of where now stands 
the fine Chestnut Street residence, which he built 
some years before his death. 

There was a platform with railing located in 
front of Mr. Burton's old store and the floor of this 
platform which was about on the level of the door- 
step was reached by a short flight of steps at either 
end. 

When a small boy, I thought it quite a treat to 
visit this store, admire the jewelry in the show cases 
and hear the ticking of many clocks. 

I now began to take more interest in various 
attractive points in the vicinity of the village, 
coupled with a desire to visit them. I soon had 
opportunities for carrying out these inclinations 
and presently was fairly well acquainted with places 
as remote as The Dam and the rocky portion of the 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 65 

Silver Brook bed. I had also met with two or three 
very respectable accidents (as far as their magnitude 
was concerned) for a boy of my years. The first 
Avas in burying the barb of a fish hook in the palm 
of my hand while fishing in the above-mentioned 
brook, necessitating the services of Dr. S. H. Case 
and the other was in falling through the platform in 
front of my father's carriage factory and dropping 
a distance of perhaps eight feet before reaching the 
ground. The latter exploit rendered me uncon- 
scious for a little time but I was all right again in a 
day or two. 

Presently, I extended my explorations up the 
Silver Brook road as far as Betsey Couse's lot — a 
famous place for strawberries. In those days there 
Avere on the Campbell farm at the foot of the ravine 
the ruins of an old building which, I think, had 
been originally erected as a distillery. On the 
upper side of the road, a little above the Blend 
farmhouse on West street, there was also at that 
time a log house — the last one remaining within 
the limits of the village, I believe. 

About the same time, I visited the mill pond 
more or less and with certain boy friends scraped 
pitch off the ends of the saw logs, also discovered 
General Burnside's spring and the large trout 
therein and eventually explored the passage way in 
the rear of the old stores and listened to the mys- 
terious coughing of the water rams. 



66 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Chestnut street was then much steeper than at 
present. In the winter season the boys would take 
their sleds and starting from, what was then the 
top of a hill in this thoroughfare, somewhat above 
Church street, would ride rapidly all the way down 
to Main street. This was a recreation that was 
extremely popular with them. 



^ ^ ^ 



1865 



CHAPTER XVII. 

GREAT THUNDER STORM. 

M^ T ELEVEN O'CLOCK in the evening of May 
-^ ^ 21, 1865, Oneonta experienced the com- 
mencement of perhaps the most severe thunder- 
storm that ever came under the observation of the 
writer. 

The following morning the townspeople were 
filled with astonishment upon witnessing the havoc 
wrought by the watery element. 

Silver Brook had temporarily made for itself a 
second channel north of Center street, where the 
stony bed can probably be traced to this day. 

Farther down the stream the bed of the brook 
became clogged with old stumps, logs, etc., to 
such a degree that the water backed up into the 
upper Dietz street dooryards, flooding cellars and 
leaving a layer of gravel several inches deep in the 
flower garden of Mrs. David Morrell, completely 
ruining the same. 

Another current of water leaped the boundaries 
of its natural channel and rushed in the direction 
of Main street, eventually reaching and crossing 



68 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

that thoroughfare directly into the basement of 
William Johnston's clothing store and thence 
flowed down the steep bank in the rear. 

The bridge near the Presbyterian church was 
badly broken, while fifty feet of Avooden sidewalk 
adjacent was torn up and carried away by the raging 
waters 

Many of the older residents will remember this 
storm and I think will agree that its wide-sweeping 
and devastating effects have fortunately never been 
paralleled by those of any storm since, in the village 
of Oneonta. 



^ ^ ^ 



1865 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
ADVENTURE AT WORCESTER. 

^m^OWAKD THE END OF SPRING my mother 
vllj and I accompanied my grandfather — Doctor 
Saunders, on his return to Saratoga County, after 
having made a visit at our house. 

We travelled by private conveyance as far as the 
New York Central railroad at Fort Plain. 

The first dav out from Oneonta I remember beiiio: 
impressed by the great magnitude of the famous 
George Clarke barn in the town of Milford. 

We stopped at Westville for dinner, remained all 
night at Cherry Valley and reached our destination 
the following night. 

Upon our return from my grandfather's, we 
travelled by rail from i\.lbany to Worcester, the 
latter point then being the terminus of the Albany 
and Susquehanna railroad. 

Upon reaching Worcester, we stopped over night 
with Rev. Wm. Baldwin and family, Mr. Baldwin, 
formerly of Oneonta, then being pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church at Worcester. 



70 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The following morning this gentleman's youngest 
son, Charlie, and the writer started out in search of 
adventure. 

Our explorations carried us into a piece of woods 
located on a hill a little northeast of the village, but 
discovering nothing there of a startling character Ave 
resumed our travels, udiich eventually brought us 
to a mill pond near the line of the railroad, perhaps 
half a mile east of Worcester. 

Here we found so much of interest requiring our 
attention that time sped entirely unnoted by us in 
its flight. 

It was not far from the noon hour when a sound 
came down the valley, which filled my mind with 
consternation and started me on a run against time- 
It was the whistle of a locomotive bringing in the 
Albany train and I knew this train made connec- 
tion with the Oneonta stage, which my mother and 
I were to tnke for home that day. I failed to think 
that the incoming passengers would stop for dinner 
at Worcester before proceeding on their journey 
and felt that my chances were rather desperate for 
catching the stage. 

I was about nine years of age and somewhat 
younger than my companion, but distanced him, 
while my other competitor, the train, quickly left me 
in the rear. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 71 

It was a very warm day and upon arriving at 
Mr. Baldwin's 1 was just able to get into the house, 
being completely overcome with heat and exhaustion, 
but in time to go out on the stage. 

In riding over the Susquehanna railroad in these 
later times, I think either Worcester must have 
grown a great deal since that memorable day, else 
some mighty convulsion of nature has forced the 
mill pond closer to town than it used to be. 



^ m ^ 



1865 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE RAILROAD CELEBRATION. 



11^^ WARD THE CLOSE OF SUMMEE, Oneonta 
saw a day that was the most memorable in 
all her history — a clay that may be termed the 
bright particular turning point in her career and 
which revealed the first faint glimmerings of that 
subsequent remarkable prosperity which is so well 
testified to by her great solid lines of brick and 
masonry which we now see. 

That auspicious day was the 29th of August and 
the occasion was the formal opening up to business 
of the Albany and Susquehanna railroad between 
Oneonta and the capital city of the State. 

In this place it is proper to mention the name of 
an old and prominent citizen, whose energy and 
ability were conspicuously shown in overcoming the 
physical obstacles that existed in the face of this 
great work between Cobleskill and Oneonta, As 
most of my readers doubtless anticipate, I refer to 
Harvey Baker. 

The 29th of August opened with a beautiful 
morning and before the day had far advanced 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 73 

every highway leading into the village was more 
or less thronged with people afoot and in convey- 
ances, all bound for the common point of attraction. 

The citizens had appointed a reception committee, 
comprising E. R. Ford, Esq., L. L. Bundy, Esq., 
John M. Ferrell, D. M. Miller, Colonel W. W. Snow, 
D. J. Yager, Esq., and Timothy Sabin, while 
another committee had erected arches completely 
spanning the prominent streets. These structures 
were profusely decorated with flags and flowers 
and likewise displayed mottoes in the following 
significant sentences : 

''Friends of our Enterprise, Welcome ; " ''Isola- 
tion obsolete ; " "The Hudson and Susquehanna 
united;" "Ramsey, our little Giant;" "State 
Officials — their Deeds in Lines of Iron ; " "Ex-Gov- 
ernor, no Veto ;" "Governor Fenton, our Railroad 
Friend" and "The Directors, Labor Omnia Vincit." 

The stores and public buildings were also deco- 
rated with flags. 

About noon the excursion train from Albany 
arrived, bringing another addition to what was 
already the largest number of people Oneonta had 
ever seen within her borders at one time. Among 
the newly arrived guests were many prominent State 
and railroad officials, who were met at the depot by 
four companies of Colonel Dunbar's 41st regiment 
of State militia, headed by Major-General S. S. 
Burnside and staff". 



74 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The invited guests were then escorted to the two 
village hotels, where dinner was served. 

Early in the afternoon the distinguished visitors, 
accompanied by the reception committee, repaired 
to the First Baptist church-yard where L. L. Bundy, 
Esq., called the vast crowd to order. 

Speeches were then made by Governor Fenton, 
Lieut. Governor Alvord, Hon. J. H. Ramsey, Judge 
Gould, Wm. Steuart, Esq., Hon. George A. Stark- 
weather and P. P. Rogers, Esq. 

At four o'clock p. m., the invited guests took the 
train to return to Albany and their departure was 
made amid cheers from the men and boys, booming 
of cannon, music of the bands and the waving of 
many handkerchiefs in the hands of the fair sex. 

It was truly a day whose enthusiasm is rarely 
equaled. 



^ ^ ^ 



1865 



CHAPTER XX. 

BURGLARS IN TOWN. 

JpN THE EARLY HOURS of the morning of 
^ December 13th of the above year, when all 
good townspeople were ordinarily supposed to be 
buried in sleep, an attempt was made by burglars to 
rob the well known store of Cope Brothers and Com- 
pany, located on the corner of Main and Broad 
streets. 

An entrance had already been effected through 
the rear wall of the store building, when a slight 
noise, made by one of the cracksmen, awakened 
Messrs. Collins and Hudson, tw^o attaches who were 
sleeping in the building. 

These gentlemen immediately suspected the true 
condition of affairs and as promptly prepared- to 
checkmate if possible the nefarious designs of the 
midnight intruders. 

The latter, however, becoming aware in turn of 
the presence of other people as wide awake to the 
nature of the occasion as themselves, concluded that 
their attempt was a failure and hastily fled in the 
direction of the railroad. 



76 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Later in the same day a carpet bag, containing a 
full set of burglar's tools, was discovered on the 
ground in the rear of the store where the robbery 
was attempted. These professional implements had 
evidently been dropped by the two men in their 
hasty flight. 

My recollection is that the identity of these burg- 
lars was never established. Their bold attempt, I 
remember, made considerable excitement in the 
little community at the time. 



^ ^ ^ 



1866 



CHAPTER XXL 

FIRST BUSINESS VENTURES. 

BOUT THE FIRST of March of this year, 
Charlie Pardee and the writer conceived the 
idea that there was a large profit in the sheep busi- 
ness and, although without capital to inaugurate 
such an undertaking, we concluded that an applica- 
tion made to our respective fathers — placing the 
matter in its proper auspicious light — could not fail 
to secure us the loan necessary to begin operations 
with. 

Our negotiations were successful and directly we 
found ourselves in possession of all the money we 
asked for — an amount sufficient to buy us one sheep 
of the ewe denomination. 

Having secured the money, we straightway started 
afoot for the rural districts to buy our stock. 

In the course of our travels we reached the farm 
of a Mr. Morrell, found out he had just what we 
wanted and was ready to consider any proposition 
we might advance relative to the price. 

In a short time we had closed a bargain with him 
and were leading our property home attached to a 
rope, which latter part of the proceeding she seemed 
inclined to take some exception to^ 



78 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

After considerable hard work and persuasion, we 
eventually reached Charlie's home and duly secured 
our prize in the barn. 

Bat somehow or other after that, things did not 
go with us in our business venture as well as we had 
anticipated ; perhaps our stock was not thorough- 
bred ; perhaps, too, there was an element of expense 
in maintaining sheep w^e had not correctly calculated 
upon. Anyway, it was but a few wrecks afterwards 
that w^e came to the conclusion that the sheep 
industry was a failure and sold out our stock for the 
best terms we could get. 

The following summer Charlie and I concluded to 
make another experiment in a business way. This 
time we decided to try agriculture. 

Now my father had recently opened up Church 
and Center streets through his farm and between 
these streets and Silver Brook was a little triangular 
piece of ground with a large maple tree in front, 
still standing at the present day. This place we 
selected for our farming operations, father having 
promised to have one of his men plough the ground 
for us. The soil having been broken up, we put 
therein barley and awaited developments. 

But again fortune frowned upon our youthful 
ambition, for the maple tree made too much shade 
or perhaps the weather was not propitious. Any- 
way, we never gathered our crop and my recollection 
is, there was very little to gather. 



1866 

CHAPTER XXII. 
EARLY EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS 

PART III. 

P REMEMBER distinctly the shock it gave to our 
^ little community when, upon that fatal day in 
April, 1865, the awful intelligence arrived that 
Lincoln had fallen by the assassin's bullet. 

While in the full tide of rejoicing over the news 
from Appomattox, the blow fell with the unexpected- 
ness of a thunderbolt upon our people, abruptly 
turning their liveliest joy into the bitterness of grief. 

It was not many months after this that Oneonta's 
soldier boys returned home for good from the scenes 
of the encampment, the march and the battle and 
then were the old war songs heard throughout the 
land with a fullness of pleasure they had never 
created before. 

The advent of the railroad, a little later, caused 
extraordinary enthusiasm among the small boys. 
There was a lad living on Chestnut street who did 
not get over the effects of it for a year. He possessed 
a small hand cart and knew no greater delight than 
propelling it rapidly up and down the streets, at the 



80 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

same time puffing and tooting in imitation of the 
locomotive. 

Some of us used to frequent the A^cinity of the 
railroad depot a great deal and watch for the incom- 
ing trains. This was particularly fascinating in the 
night time. 

Occasionally we would put crossed pins on top of 
the rail in front of the approaching train and, after 
the wheels had all passed over, would discover the 
pins nicely flattened and joined, so as to resemble 
a diminutive pair of shears. 

We were constantly on the lookout for new loco- 
motives and knew all their names and correspond- 
ing numbers. Among the earlier names of engines 
which I still recall are— ^^ E. C. Delavan," ''E. R. 
Ford," '' E. P. Prentice," '^ Jared Goodyear," ''John 
Cook," ''Charles Courter," " Minard Harder," "A. 
B. Watson," "J. H. Ramsey," " Peter Cagger" and 
" John Westover." 

Charles A. Jones and other engineers would occa- 
sionally allow some of the boys to ride on the 
locomotive while switching in the Oneonta yard and 
this was a rare treat for us. 

At that time ah engine-house and turn-table were 
located betAveen the depot and the mill ditch. 

C. W. Lewis and Place & Huntington, hotel pro- 
prietors, had closed carriages or hacks running 
between their houses and the depot and an occa- 
sional gratuitous ride in these was likewise duly 
appreciated by the boys. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 81 

On the 19th day of March, 1866, I accompanied 
the excursion train to Unadilla, in honor of the 
formal opening of the railroad for business as far as 
that point. Our train was drawn by the locomotive 
'' E. R. Ford," and upon arrival from Albany and 
departure from Oneonta it was duly saluted by 
General Burnside's *' brass six-pounder." 

I formed an impression regarding the wealth and 
enterprise of Unadilla that was not complimentary 
to Oneonta. 

Among the business and professional men of 
Oneonta about 1866 were E. R. Ford, Solon Hunting- 
ton, Harvey Baker, Charles W. Lewis, Place & Hunt- 
ington, J. C. Tice, Silas Sullivan, A, G. Shaw, D. M. 
Miller, Cope Brothers & Co., L. S. Osborn, Peters & 
Wickwire, John M. Packard, S. H. Case, M. D. ; 
Meigs Case, M. D.; H. A. Hamilton, M. D.; N. C. 
Moak, J. H. Keyes, S. J. Cooke, Bundy & Bridges, 
P. G. Wieting, S. Bowen, William McCrum, R. W. 
Hopkins, William D. Bissell, William Johnston, A. 
Mendel & Brothers, James Roberts & Co., Jay Mc- 
Donald, N. I. Ford, D. J. Yager, E. C. Bundy, Mar- 
ble & Farmer, T. S. Gault, A. Chapman, Peck & 
Coates, Reynolds Bros. & Francisco, A. D. Reynolds, 
M. D.; David T. Evans, M. D.; William H. Morris, 
Albert Morris, L. P. Carpenter, G. W. Reynolds, 
Elisha Shepherd, S. Brownson, M. Keenan, David 
Morrell, L. Goldsmith, T. J. Gildersleeve, A. J. Gates, 
Timothy Watkins, J. R. L. Walling, Timothy Sabin, 



82 ONEOyTA MEMORIES 

E. R. Sabin, Potter C. Burton, Col. W. W. Snow, 
Major-General S. S. Biirnside, J. P. Van AVoert, M. 
N. Elwell, H. Shellman, Turner McCall,H. J. Brewer, 
N. D. Jewell, George Bond, S. Hudson, H. S. Pardee, 
AV. S. Friits, Anthony White, Deacon Bingham, 
William Mickel, John Cutshaw, J. S. Doolittle and 
H. McCall. 

Oneonta, at that time, possessed an excellent high 
school and among its old faculty will be remem- 
bered the names of Professor N. N. Bull, Misses 
Hill, Miller, Flora A. Potter and Mrs. Bowman. 
This school occasionally gave public exhibitions, 
both in the new Ford store building on Broad street 
and in the Free- Will Baptist Church. 

Sometimes, in the w^inter season, the jjupils had 
enjoyable sleigh rides to neighboring towns. In 
January, 1866, under the auspices of Mrs. D. M. 
Miller and Mrs. Bowuuan, a sleigh ride to Laurens 
was given for the pleasure of the pupils. 

At this time, the district school was being con- 
ducted by Mrs. Furman and various assistants. 

There were one or two public libraries in Oneonta 
in those days and my impression is, the young ladies 
were very partial to the works of an authoress named 
Mary J. Holmes — such as " Tempest and Sunshine," 
" Lena Rivers," *' Cousin Maud," et csetera. 

In the early part of the evenings of the spring of 
1866, the boys in the neighborhood of Church and 
High streets would congregate in front of the old 



ON EON T A MEMORIES 83 

Methodist Church on the hill to take part in various 
games. I recollect some of the boys on one occa- 
sion had gathered some pitch-pine fagots and with 
the assistance of these and a quantity of pitch scraped 
from the ends of saw-logs we concluded to have a 
grand illumination. So taking an empty tin-can, 
with one side gone, we nailed it to a stake driven into 
the ground on the green directly in front of the old 
church. Then, in this elevated receptacle, we placed 
some of the resinous and inflammable material and 
lighting the same, immediately threw the shades of 
night far into the background, much to the astonish- 
ment of pedestrians who happened to be in the 
vicinity. 

It was in the same spring that my grandmother 
Huntington left Oneonta to take up her residence 
with a daughter in the western part of the State and 
her departure was a sad one to every member of her 
family living in Oneonta — both old and young. 
She was much beloved by her grandchildren and 
would entertain them by the hour with story and 
verse of the days of her childhood in far-away 
Connecticut. 

She died a few vears later at lier western home. 



^ ^ ^ 



M 



1866. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
A SUMMER DAY. 

OW WELL DO I EEMEMBER the feeling of 
pleasure inspiring me upon going forth into 
the atmosphere of a beautiful summer morning. 

Old Sol had perhaps already made his appearance 
a full hour before me and was making fine progress 
on his way up the eastern heavens. 

But something of a more practical nature than 
speculating upon the travels of the old fellow in the 
fiery chariot would directly draw my attention, in 
the shape of a yawning wood-box, whose demands 
were ever daily recurring and imperative for me to 
make good the constant draughts made upon it by 
Rebecca in the prosecution of her household duties. 

Then the hired men would be seen approaching 
the house from the direction of the orchard, bring- 
ing with them the ''morning's milk," which they 
would duly deposit in the cool, spacious cellar. 

After breakfast, l would start with the cows for pas- 
ture, occasionally receiving on the way other cattle 
belonging to townspeople, who liked for their stock 
the grassy and convenient slopes of our farm. 



ONEONTA 31 EMORIES 85 

How well do I recall the appearance of those durnh 
companions of my boyhood. Of father's stock 
there was the old black cow ; the small brown one ; 
the two white ones and the red heifer — the latter, 
although perhaps the oldest in the herd, still bore the 
name applied in her youth. She was the defender of 
her companions against the street attacks of any and 
all assailants belonging to her race and achieved a 
greater and more lasting reputation in warfare than 
for her value in the more peaceful and useful life of 
the dairy.. 

During a portion of this season, Charlie Pardee 
made it a practice to accompany me every morning 
with the cows to pasture and upon each arrival at our 
destination — which was just below the house of 
Eseck Blend, on West street — we would duly scratch 
a mark with a sharp-edged stone on the rail-fence by 
the bars. Traces of these marks were still distin- 
guishable on the old rails many years later — although 
frost, snow, rain and heat had successively tried their 
best to obliterate them. 

Toward noon, if it was school vacation, or per- 
haps in the afternoon, the village boys would resort 
to The Flume and avail themselves of the pleasures 
in the way of a swim offered by its shaded precincts. 
On our way there other boys might be seen in the 
distance and duly hailed, accompanied by an invita- 
tion to likewise repair to the cooling waters. This 
invitation was usually extended in pantomime, by 



86 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

throwing up the right arm perpendicularl}^, with 
simply the index and middle fingers projecting from 
the hand. 

The waters of The Flume, entering by a narrowed 
channel beneath the bridge and between two large 
trees, were shot forward with much velocity for a few 
feet, when, the banks of the stream separating more, 
the current became materially reduced in its speed. 

The southerly bank bordered the usual entering 
place of the bathers at a point where its contour 
assumed a shape approaching semi-circular. Here 
the water was quite deep and admitted of diving 
directly from the bank. The bed of the stream on its 
opposite side, however, descended quite gradually 
from the shore and was more resorted to by small 
boys and beginners. 

Below the entering place on the southerly side was 
a line of small piles, between which and the bank 
were placed brush and stones to protect the adjoin- 
ing land from the assaults of the watery tide. 

Near the head of The Flume and parallel with the 
course of its current extended the submerged sill of 
a building which had formerly stood in this place. 
This sill was located near the southerly bank, a foot or 
two beneath the surface of the w^ater and although a 
little removed from the extreme force of the current, 
still made a rather precarious footing. The older 
boys, however, adopted this as a common resting- 
place when not swimming. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 87 

It was a favorite amusement for the bathers to 
dive for pieces of white marble that could be plainly 
seen on the bed of the stream and if m}^ memory 
fails me not, one of these bits of marble had formerly 
served as the footstone of a grave and still bore the 
initials of the dead. 

Toward the close of the day I would — at times 
reluctantly — leave my sports and, warned by the 
setting sun, repair to the pasture to bring home the 
cows. 

Sometimes, but not often, I would fail to find them 
in sight upon reaching the old bars and then would 
be obliged to climb the hill in search of them. 

Perhaps, too, it would be getting late and the 
great shadows thrown by the western hills were 
creeping fast into the valley, although on the opposite 
heights my surroundings were still submerged wilh 
the sunny but mellowed light of the dying day. 
Then the stillness of tired Nature turning to her 
rest seemed to permeate the atmosphere with a 
peaceful languor born of sympathy with the occasion, 
while the increasing melancholy of approaching 
twilight seemed intensified by the occasional tink- 
ling of a bell in some distant pasture or fold. 

At last the truants were found in the back field by 
the woods and straightway hastened on their way 
homeward. 

In the early evening the stillness of our village 
would perhaps be broken presently by the prelim- 



88 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

iiiary notes of Colonel UebePs brass band practicing 
in a room over the Hopkins furniture store on 
Chestnut street and again people passing on the 
same thoroughfare would sometimes hear the softer 
and more agreeable notes of both vocal and instru. 
mental music floating out through the maple trees 
in front of the old Burton residence. 

Finally, with the fast-accumulating dew on grass 
and leaf, the evening hastened apace, young people 
wended their way homeward, the merchant closed 
his store, the sounds of melody ceased, a great hush 
filled earth and sky and with the disappearing vil- 
lage lights the universal rest and peace were unbroken 
save perhaps by the occasional notes of the whip- 
poor-will as they came floating down from the sombre 
slopes of Snow Hill. 



^ ^ ^ 



1866 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

S early as the middle of the forties Oneonta had 
^^ a Volunteer Fire Department and possibly 
even before then. 

My recollection of the organization begins with 
the early sixties. 

At that time the engine house stood on what is 
now the head of Broad street, a little back from 
Main street. With the opening up of the former 
thoroughfare in 1865 the engine house was removed 
to a point on Dietz street about opposite the residence 
of Meigs Case, M. D. 

In those days Oneonta had no public water works 
and '-rain water" w^as accordingly stored for fire 
emergencies in large cisterns, one of which was 
located in the end of Dietz street where it joins 
Main, while another was in the front of the First 
Baptist Churchyard. I think, originally, there 
was also a cistern in front of the engine house where 
it stood before being removed to Dietz street. 

The apparatus in 1866 consisted simply of a hand- 
engine, hose carriage and accompanying parapher- 



90 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

ualia; but with finely-polished brass and copper 
mountings, the former looked extremely imposing 
to the village boys. 

There were, to be sure, a lot of fire ladders referred 
to in a previous part of this book, but they still 
remained nicely stored away on the upper beams of 
the First Baptist Church sheds in company with 
sundry hooks for lack of a proper vehicle. 

The name of the organized fire company at this 
period was "Resolute, No. 1;" Foreman, Harrison 
J. Collins; First Assistant, William H. Mosher; 
Second Assistant, Henry D. Jennings; Secretary 
and Treasurer, Norman J. Farmer. 

Occasionally this company would make a public 
appearance for drill or exhibition, dressed in their 
bright uniforms and proudly drawing the engine. 

Having reached the proper place and dropping in 
the cistern the suction pipe, the firemen would range 
themselves along each side of the machine and, 
seizing the two long longitudinal pumping rods, 
give such a lusty proof of their physical powers that 
no one present could ever say they belied the name 
of their organization. To the small-boy spectators, 
the water shooting from the nozzle of the hose 
seemed to climb almost to the very heavens. 



^ ^ ^ 



1866 
CHAPTER XXV. 

GENERAL TRAINING. 
OA¥ARD THE CLOSE OF SEPTEMBER of 



-*- the above year, a General Training was held 
in Oneonta. 

It was participated in by two regiments of the 
State Militia, and I think was the last military 
spectacle of the kind our town was ever favored 
with. 

Several events of this character are comprised 
within my recollection of the old days at home and 
the young people especially looked upon General 
Trainings with a favor only equaled by that which 
they displayed for Fourth of July and circus days. 

The usual drilling ground was down on the river 
flats adjacent to the village and the crowds of people 
attracted to town from the neighboring rural dis- 
tricts were immense. 

Those were proud days for our prominent citizen, 
Major-General S. S. Burnside, who commanded the 
troops. 

The General Training of 1866 was memorable in 
another respect, and that was on account of the 



92 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

inordinate rainfall which sadly marred the success 
of the occasion. 

Charlie Baker acted as one of General Burnside's 
orderlies and^ nicely mounted on his prancing steed, 
was the object of considerable envy to the other 
village boys. 

On Thursday, September 20th, the Hon. lleuben 
E. Fenton, governor of our great commonwealth, 
arrived at Oneonta to participate in the glories of 
military life. His Excellency took quarters at the 
Susquehanna House. 

In the afternoon of that same day the Governor 
attempted to review the soldiers between the rains, 
but, the weather continuing so unpropitious, every- 
one felt that the whole affair was a most dismal 
failure. 

The following day, it still being stormy, the troops 
disbanded and started for their homes. 

I think this was the close of General Burnside's 
active military life. 



^ ^ ^ 



1866 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WINTER SPORTS. 

JpN THE SHORT WINTER DAYS of our noith- 
3L ern latitude, country boys were expected to be 
up in the morning and dressed before there was any 
great quantity of light in the eastern horizon. In 
fact, it w^as more or less a common thing oftentimes 
for the writer to have breakfast by lamplight, 
illuminating gas at that time being an unknown 
quantity in Oneonta. 

The extreme cold weather at that period of the 
year compelled us to take precautions for the safety 
of our ears and fingers when exposed to the frosty 
outdoor atmosphere. Like most boys, I usually 
wore a heavy woolen scarf or comforter and mittens 
of the same warm material. 

In those days we had, not far from our house, a 
large barn that stood upon the side of the hill. On 
one side of the basement of this barn was a row of 
five stalls with space in the rear for horses to come 
in and go out, while the other side of the basement 
was the bottom of a great place extending unob- 
structed from the ground to the roof and used for 



94 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

storing loose hay. This place was called the bay. 
The main floor of the barn was just above the stable 
and about even Avith the level of the ground upon 
the upper side of the building. This floor was 
sometimes used for threshing both with flails and 
horse-power and usually contained, on one side, 
near the granary and open spaces where hay was 
thrown down to the horses, a large red fanning mill. 
On the other side of the threshing floor was the 
great bay extending above and below, with its per- 
pendicular face of hay in the winter time, while 
along in the spring it became quite empty. 

Above the threshing floor were the two scaffolds 
which contained grain in the sheaf, with the ba}^ 
on one side and on the other an additional place for 
storing hay, the latter being located a little below 
the scaffolds. This barn, with a smaller one at the 
lower end of the barnyard, constituted the scenes of 
recreation for many a village boy at sundry times in 
the winter season, the favorite amusement being Hide 
and Seek. Sometimes the more daring would jump 
from the scaffolds into the hay, which made a drop 
of many feet for them when the hay was getting 
reduced in quantity. 

About this time, as a boy of ten years, I witnessed 
an exciting scene in our barnyard, in which Richard 
Crandall and a pair of steers bore a conspicuous 
part. Dick, having a little leisure time upon his 
hands one day, thought he would break these 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 95 

animals to the neck-3^oke, but the plan was exactly 
reversed, for the steers broke the yoke instead and 
for many long years thereafter it remained in an 
out of the way part of our cow stable as a memento 
of that exciting day. 

Coasting and skating were as a matter of course 
extremely common amusements with us in winter. 
Sometimes a boy would hitch his hand sled behind 
a cutter or sleio-h outward bound from the villao-e 
and, if the driver was not inclined to respond to the 
suggestion of other boys at a distance to '' whip 
behind," the lucky urchin would perhaps ride a 
long way into the country, returning home, if he 
happened to be fortunate, behind some equally ac- 
commodating farmer or traveler who did not object 
to furnishing motive power. 

A boy friend and the writer took a sleigh ride 
with my father about this period, to some farm not 
remote from the classic precincts of Baker Hill. 
It was a very cold day and upon arriving at our 
destination we were glad of a chance to go inside 
and warm ourselves by a liot kitchen fire. The 
lady of the house took much interest in our com- 
fort and to add to her hospitalities she finally 
said to her daughter: '' Miranda, can't you bring 
out the piano and give the boys some music ? " 
Miranda was a stout, healthy, vigorous looking girl 
but the piano failed to show itself. 



m ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Boys and girls in those days used to go skating 
on the Mill Pond, The Plains lake, and the Goose 
Pond. The latter was between Luther street and 
the river, but is now mostly filled in, I think. 

The Plains lake was rather remote, while the Mill 
Pond was the preferable place in most respects. We 
could not only utilize the frozen pond, but often- 
times found the skating good a long ways up the 
mill ditch, including the Cove, which was an over- 
flowed place near the eastern base of Barn Hill. 

I have not seen Oneonta in the winter time for 
nearly fourteen years, but taking a summer view 
of the old Mill Pond impresses one that, with the 
diminution of its waters, the skating upon its frozen 
surface in the winters of these later years can 
hardly be as extended or satisfactory as it was in the 
boyhood days of the writer, who knew it i\i its best. 



^ m y^ 



1867 



CHAPTER XXV 11. 
FALLING LEAVES. 

EVER, ELSEWHERE, in the course of 
extended travels in the autumn months 
have I seen the foliage of tree and bush assume 
more gorgeous and resplendent colors of variegated 
hue than one can almost always witness on my 
native hills in the fall of the year. 

The maples especially, when only in ordinary 
attire, are the glory of the Otsego landscape, but 
having abandoned sober green for the brilliant 
tints bought for a few fleeting days with their 
receding life's blood, the effect constitutes a picture 
that Nature, be she ever so prodigal, can afford us 
but once a year. 

Those were the days of frosty mornings and 
barren fields ; when our song birds had taken their 
flight to the less rigorous climes of the south land ; 
when the silence of the woods was impressive and 
deep, although occasionally broken by some nut- 
seeking squirrel sharply protesting at the intrusion 
which interrupted the gathering of his winter's 
store, or by the loud, quick tapping of a woodpecker 
on some neighboring tree. 



y« ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Boys, and men as well, were occasionally seen in 
the woods on the summits and slopes of the outlying 
hills emulating the industry of the squirrel, but 
with a spirit of mutual rivalry added, in attempting 
to gather the larger quantity of chestnuts. They 
not only clubbed the trees but if the burrs were well 
opened ascended up to and shook the limbs, gath- 
ering the fruits of their adventure in well filled 
sacks or baskets. 

On the way toward home they would sometimes 
stop and prospect well-known trees in the fields, but 
were usually there disappointed, finding the ground 
strewn with clubs and tenantless burrs. 

Later on, the forlorn hope arrived and pushed 
away the dead leaves with stick and cane, rarely 
discovering a nut overlooked by squirrels and men. 

Those were likewise the days when was heard the 
sound of the flail, sometimes hollow and muflied in 
its tone when the stalks lay deep and thick, and 
anon the strokes would sound quick and sharp as 
the lusty hired men worked slowly up and down the 
threshing floor. 

In later years horse-power machinery was called 
upon to do this work as well as to saw up the winter's 
supply of firewood. 

Indoor games at night grew popular with young 
people as the fall season hastened, although there 
were few autumn evenings in September and 
October, Init what bovs could maintain a comforta- 



ONE ON T A 31 EMORIES 



99 



ble bodily heat outside the house if they kept in 
motion much of the time. This was illustrated in 
such games as "I Spy," which afforded us great fun 
and excitement. 

Another source of amusement for the hoy fra- 
ternity in the fall of the year was furnished by the 
jack-lanterns, whose ogrish faces with long, sharp- 
pointed teeth were occasionally seen on top of some 
convenient fence post, or were suddenly thrust in 
and as quickly withdrawn from the faces of startled 
pedestrians by the mischievous lads concealed on 
the opposite side of the fence. 

The trees had now been nearly stripped of their 
summer mantles and the dead leaves thickly strewed 
the ground. So numerous, dry and crisp were they 
in yard and path alike that belated boys in walking 
through them often gave waiting and anxious 
mothers their first intimation of the truant's return, 
even before the approaching figures could be recog- 
nized in the cold, starry brightness of those autumn 
nights. 



^ ^ ^ 



1808 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
RECOLLECTIONS OE A PRIVATE SCHOOL. 

IpmURING the five years terminating with the 
J^=^ spring of 1868, I attended but two schools in 
all that period and as before stated Miss Sullivan 
was my only teacher. 

Commencing my school life under the tuition of 
this lady in 18G3, at the old District School, I also 
attended the private school at her Dietz street resi- 
dence in the middle part of 1864 ; returned with her 
to the public school toward the end of the same year; 
was one of her pupils upon the resumption of the 
Dietz street school in 1865, and there remained until 
the end of my private school life in Oneonta. 

In 1864 the Dietz street school was conducted in 
an upper front room ; in 1865 and the years follow- 
ing, on the first floor. 

Besides the text-books of the District School, we 
studied Clark's Grammar and, I think, Richardson's 
History of the United States. 

During the first winter term (1865-1866) of the 
Dietz street school, the writer occupied a seat in the 
southerlv front room ; the next winter a desk in the 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 101 

northerly front room, and during the last year there, 
he sat in the little back room. 

The second of the above rooms contained a row 
of desks along the Dietz street front, while the little 
rear room had two desks located at the back part of 
the same, one on either side of the window. In this 
last room was also a movable black-board resting 
on two legs. 

During my last term at this school the other 
occupants of the rear room besides the writer were 
Fred Shaw, Alpheus Sabin and Eugene Parr. We 
looked upon the location of our seats with much 
favor for they were in a room which placed us 
apart from the rest of the school by ourselves 
alone, although more or less within view of our 
teacher, who had her seat in the adjoining apart- 
ment. 

The principal amusement of the boys during 
recess in the summer time was ball, either played 
as " one old cat," or '' two old cat." 

About 1866 there was the deserted shell of an old 
house two or three doors a])ove our school, on the 
same side of the street and which the boys fre- 
quented more or less. In the rear of this building 
was a sand bank where we also used to play. 

In the winter season we would either snowball 
each other or play in the great snow banks on the 
hill slope in the rear of the house. 



102 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Our teacher kept bees in the back yard of her 
residence and, sometimes, when certain of her pupils 
had been particularly well-behaved, they were more 
than rewarded by receiving some of the delicious 
honey to take home with them. 

In the front yard were arranged several fancy 
flower beds which, in the springtime, made a dis- 
play of more than ordinary interest and beauty. 

The maple trees which we see along Dietz street 
to-day were then but mere saplings. 

Among fellow pupils toward the close of my 
school days with Miss Sullivan, I think there were all 
of the following : 0. C. McCrum, Orson A. Miller, 
Edward D. Lewis, D'Estaing Place, Alfred G. Shaw, 
Alpheus T. Sabin, Arthur Ford, Morrell Nelson, 
Eugene S. Parr, Willis Peebles, C. W. Lewis, Nellie 
Howe, Emma Dunham, Martha Coates, Lulie Ford, 
Fannie McDonald, Nellie Lewis, Mary Howe, Nellie 
Ford, Mary Johnston, Louise Elwell and Helen Pat- 
terson. A number of other names occur to me, but 
not being almost certain they were borne by pupils 
attending the school at that time, I withhold them 
for fear of making errors. 



^ ^ ^ 



1868 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

SPRING TIME. 

^^Ip^HE DEPARTURE OF WINTER was always 
^- satisfactory to the youthful element of One. 
onta's population, although its arrival was received 
with a certain degree of approbation by us at the 
time, for it brought within its train a long line of 
sports and recreations that could be furnished by 
no other season. 

Winter was always accompanied however by Jack 
Frost — an officious, although influential busybody 
and hanger-on, who, over-estimating the lasting 
quality of the welcome accorded his master, was 
inclined to extend the programme to lengths hardly 
in conformity with popular sentiment as the season 
advanced and their visit became prolonged. 

Presently, however, old Sol, warming up with 
compassion for imprisoned Nature, would begin 
to dissolve her fetters, and elbow the unwelcome 
guests into more appropriate quarters. 

Simultaneously the sap in the trees would feel a 
quickening in sympathy with the new conditions, 
and preparations would straightway be commenced 



104 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

by various thrifty people for the annual robbing of 
the sugar-maple. 

When George W. Fairchild and the writer were 
each twelve or thirteen years old they had a '' sap 
bush " in the woods near the summit of the Normal 
School hill and about on a line with Dietz street. 
They did not conduct this bush for a long time 
however. 

One of the most cheerful and pleasing sounds of 
springtime was the opening chorus emanating from 
the dark precincts of the frog pond in the early part 
of the evening. 

The coming of the swallows was likewise an event- 
ful day to me, for there was always a great colony 
of them that came every year and took up their 
mud nest quarters under the easterly eaves of our 
larger barn. Many who were village boys at that 
time will remember them. 

In the same barn we had a granary whose only 
light w\^s admitted by means of a square-shaped hole 
in the side of the building and directly under the 
nests of the eaves swallows. Every Spring there 
was one solitary pair of chimney swallows that had 
a nest of sticks glued to one of the walls of this 
granary. 

Among our favorite amusements in the same 
season of the year were kite-flying, duck-on-the-rock, 
barn-ball, and bonfires in the evening. 

Small boys of seven or eight years of age would 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 105 

carry on a great rivalry in the gathering of pins, 
shortly after the melting of the snows, scanning 
carefully the old wooden sidewalks, likewise the 
sweepings thrown out in the rear of the ancient 
frame stores on the southerly side of Main street. 
Sometimes in the latter quarter an industrious 
urchin striving to gather the largest number of pins 
would be made happy in finding a '' shin-plaster," 
as a sample of the fractional paper circulating 
medium which the Government called money was 
then denominated. 

Older boys and girls, upon the drying of the earth, 
would range the slopes near the village in search 
of early wild flowers and a favorite place to look for 
them was beyond the summit of the ridge situated 
between the hill road to Laurens and the Babcock 
Hollow road. This was on my father's land and I 
remember at the extreme back end of his most 
remote field from the village and close to the woods 
there was in a secluded hollow the remnants of a 
house deserted many years ago. Near its broken 
and tumbled -down foundation walls was a large 
spring of cold, pure water which often quenched the 
thirst of the writer in his boyhood. The name of 
the last family that occupied this lonely dwelling 
was Kimball and they moved away very early in 
my recollection. 

Another popular excursion was to The Rocks. 
In those days distinguishing- appellations were 



106 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

applied to them such as Table Rock, Name Rock, 
Prospect Rock etc. 

In a dry crevice of one of these rocks I remember 
once finding several cards dated five years before 
and bearing the names of Ada Ford, M. Leonora 
Huntinsjton, Amelia Cooke and one or two otlier 
mutual girl friends. 

Name Rock, however, carried more permanent 
memorials in sundry names deeph- chiseled in its 
surface — some antedating the Rebellion. 

There was one name there which was always 
regarded with mournful interest — that of Elvin D. 
Farmer. Entering the Northern Army at an early 
period, his subsequent fate was locked up in the 
mysteries of the war. 

He was one of the many who died for their 
country in the springtime of life. 



^ ^ ^ 



1868 



CHAPTER XXX. 

STORY OF A BOTTLE OF ELDERBERRY WINE. 

pN THE FALL SEASON OF 1868, Richard Cooper, 
^ a playmate of mine who lived in our house at the 
foot of the orchard hill, gathered a quantity of elder- 
berries and, after squeezing therefrom the juice, 
united with it certain other necessary concomitants 
and putting the product in a sealed bottle placed 
the same on an out-of-the-way shelf in the house 
where he lived. 

This proceeding was finished with a satisfied feel- 
ing that the way was now well prepared for a treat 
upon some future occasion and already he antici- 
pated the taste of his elderberry wine. 

Now Dick's uncle Jack was a humorous man and 
always felt a certain pleasure in teasing his nephew\ 
Moreover he was not a stranger to the exact 
location of the wine but a very little while after it 
had been temporarily placed on the out-of-the-way 
shelf. 

In the fullness of time, which arrived on a certain 
day when Dick and the writer were playing together 
in our barn, he let me into the secret of his treasure 



108 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

and generously proposed that we go and test the 
quality of the same. So, with minds fall of pleasant 
anticipation, we repaired to his home. 

But as Fate unkindly ordained, Dick's invitation 
to me in the barn had been overheard by the afore- 
said relative, who hastened away in advance without 
having been seen by us. 

Upon arriving at the house the first sight that 
met our bewildered gaze upon entering was the 
same uncle Jack with an aggravating smile on his 
face, seated at a small table in the middle of the 
room and upon the table was a filled tumbler 
flanked by the partly-emptied bottle of elderberry 
wine. 

The reader can now readily imagine the scene 
that followed, about equally mixed with poor 
Richard's consternation, anger, grief and dismay. 
Although the wine had not been tasted and event- 
ually we had it entirely to ourselves, my friend's 
glowing pride of ownership could not have been 
more sadly injured had he found nothing but the 
dregs of the emptied bottle. 



^ ^ ^ 




1868 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

POPULAR GATHERINGS. 

NEONTA, when a very small village, was 
famous for drawing greater numbers of peo- 
ple to her public entertainments, whatsoever their 
character, than any other place in her section of the 
State. Not that the means she furnished for inter- 
esting the stranger within her gates were more 
attractive or extensive in their scope ; not that the 
neighboring agricultural people were more willing 
to spend their money for personal gratification, and 
not that her whisky was any better or worse as, 
perhaps, some malicious people maintained. The 
true reason was the same that I referred to in the 
beginning of this book and that was to the effect 
thnt, owing to the peculiar topography of the sur- 
rounding country, it was the natural center of a 
large section of the State. 

It seems to me that those great crowds of old were 
a pretty safe indication of the truth of the state- 
ment which her more far-seeing business men 
made and maintained when they said, '* Oneonta 
is the coming town." 



110 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The observance of certain public holidays with 
us during that period, seemed hardly complete 
without the martial music of the West Oneonta 
Band ; and where was there any music more soul- 
inspiring to any true American than the sound of 
the drum and the fife, as we heard it from those 
'country musicians ? 

What the bagpipes of Scotland did for the crumb- 
ling squares at Waterloo, the drum and the fife 
did for our ancestors under Putnam and Stark, w^hen 
they not only successfully met the onslaught of their 
oppressors, but were enabled to send that triumph- 
ant shout into the recoiling ranks of the foemen: 
•' The Yankees are cowards, are they ?'' 

^/r * ^ % 'k * 

Four great events were there often contained in 
one year's history of our little town, each of which 
rarely failed to pack the streets with the assembled 
multitude of people, often drawn in part from sec- 
tions as remote as Burlington, Delhi, Unadilla, Wor- 
cester and Stamford. 

Those conspicuous occasions were, the Fourth of 
July, General Training and Political Meetings, all 
of which were supposed to appeal to our patriotism; 
also Circus Day, where love of country was not so 
much inclined to assert itself. 

The Fourth of July and Circus Day used to suit 
me best and I fancy there were few American boys 
who would have said to the contrary. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 111 

Fourth of July was ushered in with a salute at 
sunrise from the old brass six-pounder, which every 
old Oneonta boy remembers. From the top of Barn 
Hill by the Mill Pond, where the firing took place, 
the report would awaken the echoes of the distant 
hills and bring sleeping boys to a speedy realization 
of their duty to their country and to themselves as 
well. 

A little later on in the day, the noisy firecracker 
and humble little torpedo would do their best to 
keep alive the memory of the first Fourth of July. 

Still later, the now thoroughly enthused people 
would perhaps repair to Walling's Grove and listen 
to the more intellectual features of the day. 

Alonff in the afternoon, the Militia and Volunteer 
Firemen would sometimes parade, followed by the 
'' Grotesques and Horribles," hideous in their masks 
and arousing the lively consternation of the small 
boy. 

In the evening, we usually had public fireworks 
at the foot of Chestnut street, and I am sure I have 
never seen fireworks since that aff*orded so much 
pleasure to me as Oneonta's display of the same in 
the olden time. 

The coming of a circus was a great event, which 
we enjoyed somewhat by anticipation as well. Sev- 
eral weeks before the '' greatest show on earth " 
would reach town, enormous posters, in brilliant, 
colored pictures and letters, would be pasted on the 



112 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

old Chestnut street hotel barns, announcing the 
pleasure and instruction in store for the people upon 
the arrival of these sjreat aggregations of every- 
thing that could reasonably be asked for to contri- 
bute to their happiness. 

Circusmen, as a rule, were rather partial to certain 
vacant lands of my father's as desirable places for 
pitching their tents. These fields were usually on 
one side or the other of Church street, between 
High street and where is now Cherry street, and 
comparatively close to the center of the village. 

A circus in those days was' usually transported 
from town to town by means of horses and wagons, 
and upon its approach to Oneonta many of the boys 
would meet it on the outskirts of the village and 
act as a volunteer escort through the crowded, prin- 
cipal streets to the sound of the music until the 
circus grounds were reached, where a small city of 
canvas presently grew up like magic. 

Among the names of circus proprietors visiting 
Oneonta about this period I remember Dan Rice, 
De Mott & Ward, Stone Rosston cfe Murray, O'Brien, 
Van Amburgh, etc. 

Circuses then, with all their traveling adjuncts, 
were much the same as we see them to-day, so any 
extended description in this place is hardly neces- 
sary. 

The morning following the departure of a circus 
from town, some of the boys used to visit the 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 113 

vacated ground at an early hour and occasionally 
were fortunate enough to find money thereon of 
small denomination. 

Political meetings, especially in the Presidential 
campaigns, were looked upon with approbation b}^ 
the boys of town and particularly so if, when held 
in the evening, they were preceded by torchlight 
processions. 

The erection of liberty-poles was considered an 
important feature in the national political contests, 
and a point on the southerly side of Main street, about 
opposite the Chestnut street corner of the Susque- 
hanna House, was usually selected by the Republi- 
cans as the most desirable location for their pole. 
Here stood a pole in 1864 and just prior to the elec- 
tion of 1868 a new one was erected about 125 feet 
high. 

The village boys took great interest in the latter 
election and ranged themselves upon opposite sides 
of the political fence in conformity with the views 
and predilections of their respective sires. 

Different sections of the village supported smaller 
poles erected through the zeal of the juvenile ele- 
ment. In my neighborhood the boys put up a 
Grant and Colfax pole about fifty feet high, located 
on Church street near High about opposite the old 
Methodist parsonage. Willis Peebles and Eugene 
Alton figured conspicuously in this little side move- 



114 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

inent, showing conclusively that even the small boys 
were awake to the perils of their country. 

The Republicans of Oneonta in those days had 
the greatest number of liberty poles, but they lacked 
in the enthusiasm — whether real or artificial — and 
the local oratory as well, which our Democratic 
friends always had in abundance. 

Oneonta's political leaders of 1868 have now 
mostly passed away and all will unite with me in 
saying, ''Peace to their ashes." 



^ ^ ^ 



1868 
CHAPTER XXXII. 

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS 

PART IV. 

'W THINK IT WAS IN THE SPRING of 1866, 
^ I had my first, and only, practical experience 
in military life. 

This opportunity afforded the juvenile portion of 
town for indulging its martial tastes was through 
the instrumentality of our well-known citizen 
General S. S. Burnside. 

The General conceived the idea that there was a 
sad waste of good material in the younger genera- 
tion of Oneonta who were growing up from boyhood 
without being trained in the glorious pursuits of 
war. The boys thought so too and within a very 
short time after this mutual understanding was 
reached the General had secured a supply of 
muskets from the State and was instructing us in 
the manual of arms and training us in military 
tactics. 

I think there were about twenty-five boys in the 
company ranging from ten to sixteen years of age. 



116 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The writer was one of the youngest members and 
had about all he wanted to do to lift his musket. 
We usuall}^ trained in Military Hall, nearly oppo- 
site the junction of Main and Broad streets, and I 
believe did not survive the season as an organiza- 
tion. 

The public amusements of Oneonta in those days 
were limited in a considerable degree to home talent. 
Among the few traveling troupes, however, that did 
semi-occasionally visit us will be remembered the 
names of Signor Blitz, Peak Famil}^ of Swiss Bell 
Ringers and Barker Family of Singers. A glass 
blowing genius would sometimes favor Oneonta 
with an exhibition of his skill and a chance to buy 
his handiwork. 

There was another class of traveling people we 
saw a great deal of in 1866, who also claimed to be 
public benefactors in a more practical way. I refer 
to the lightning rod men who captured, with their 
blandishments, a large number of our people. 

I think it was in the fall of the same year that 
squirrels were so numerous in the village trees. 

About this period, we had a city boy attending 
school in Oneonta in the person of Eddie Raun, 
who lived at the house of Silas Sullivan, Mrs. 
Sullivan being his aunt. Eddie was a popular boy 
and is just as popular as a man in my present home, 
San Francisco, where I often see him. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 117 

About the first of June, 18B7, I visited relatives 
in Saratoga County, also others living on Jay street 
in Schenectady. While at the latter place I received 
a letter from my mother, announcing the death of 
Kobert W. Hopkins. 

In the spring of 1868, Charlie Pardee and Richard 
Cooper, playmates of mine, secured two young foxes 
of a man living near the toll gate, one mile east of 
Oneonta on the road to Emmons. These little 
quadrupeds attracted much attention among the 
village boys. Charlie kept his fox at his home on 
the corner of Academy and Grove streets, while 
Richard's fox was kept tied to an old stump in 
Father's lower orchard. 

Croquet was introduced in Oneonta about this 
time and soon claimed many devotees among both 
old and young. The first game of croquet I ever 
played was with the Alton children in their yard 
on the corner of Chestnut and Church streets. 

Oneonta boys used to go swimming very often in 
the summer of 1868 at The Flume or The Dam and 
it was a common thing when the bathers left the 
water to be saluted with the cry of '^chew raw beef." 
None of us failed to appreciate in a practical way 
the perverted meaning of this phrase when it came 
to untying knots in our shirt sleeves with our teeth. 

The writer on another occasion, as a matter of 
accommodation to a farmer, stepped into a harness 
shop on Main street and inquired for ''some strap 



118 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

oil." He very soon afterwards knew what that 
meant too. 

Ahout this time Oneonta received additions to its 
business men in the coming of the following new 
citizens: Messrs. Edwards and Liddle, who succeeded 
G. Z. Sanders in the hardware business, H. M. Tobey, 
A. B. Tobey, Mr. Myers, A. C. Moody E. D. Saunders, 
A. R. Dutton, C. E. Bunn, Mr. Siple, E. J. Morgan, 
M. D., J. H. Keyes, J. Cohn, L. Hathaway, W. W. 
Alton, D. W. Ford, R. L. Fox, C. W. Bixby, C. D. 
Pope, H. N. Rowe, etc. 

It was about this period also, that Professor Fow- 
ler made a temporary stay in town in order to 
instruct the rising generation in penmanship. 

In the early part of the summer of 1868 I accom- 
panied my uncle, C. P. Huntington, to New York 
for a little visit and returning via North River 
steamer, Schenectady, Saratoga County and Water- 
vliet, reached home about the Fourth of July not 
without a bountiful supply of firecrackers. I gave 
some of them to Richard Cooper, thereby winning 
very pleasant encomiums from his family. 

One evening in the fall of 1868 Oneonta witnessed 
a beautiful meteoric shower which was the sensation 
of the season. 

This was the same period when Oneonta ladies 
wore waterfalls and the Grecian Bend was a com- 
mon spectacle in the land. Dolly Vardens and 
velocipedes made their appearance not long after- 
w^ards. Lyman Blend can testify as to the latter. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 119 

E. C. Bandy's confectionery store was uncom- 
monly attractive to the young people. James 
Roberts' store too, was not without a good stock of 
candy and I remember on one occasion about this 
time, Colonel Snow invited a number of lads 
into the latter place and bought them a liberal 
amount of stick candy and Jackson balls ; not neces- 
sarily the latter, however, because the Colonel hap- 
pened to be a Democrat. 

Doctor David T. Evans in those days used to be 
seen sitting more or less in E. C. Bundy's store. 
Old and young alike enjoyed his funny stories. The 
aged doctor lived pretty well up toward the century 
mark and I think never failed in his old age to 
celebrate each successive birthday by jumping up 
in the air and striking his feet twice together before 
getting back to the floor. 

Then, as well as now, the town had its popular 
songs, but " Captain Jinks" undoubtedly took pre- 
cedence with perhaps '' Pretty little Sarah " as 
second. 

Among familiar places of this period many peo- 
ple will remember the old joint office and bar-room 
(the latter on a six inch lower floor) of the Oneonta 
House and the steel engraving therein, entitled 
'' The Trapper's last Shot." 

Another familiar place was the old postoffice on 
the first floor of the same building now occupied in 
part by A. G. Shaw, Esq., as an office. 



120 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Near the rear end of the waiting-room of this post- 
office was an old counter reaching nearly across the 
apartment, behind which the space was occupied by 
an old and respected citizen as a shoe shop. 

On this counter was kept a large brown jug — of 
water, while on the southerly wall of the room were 
hung historical pictures (in the interest of various 
insurance companies) of " Washington crossing the 
Delaware," and '' Putnam leaving the Plow '' upon 
receiving the news from Concord and Lexington. 

Then there was the long black patent-leather 
covered bench underneath the pictures. 

Sometimes I would be invited in behind the boxes 
while my companion, Arthur Sullivan, assisted his 
father in distributing the mail. 

That was the nearest I ever found myself to a 
Government position. 



^ ^ M 




1869 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE OLD CHURCHES. 

MY EARLIEST BOYHOOD there had 
been four church edifices in Oneonta village, 
all of them being small frame structures. 

The Baptist and Presbyterian steeples alone con- 
tained bells, and the preparations and time of depar- 
ture from home of the people of all denominations 
destined for regular morning and evening religious 
service were governed by these two bells. 

The Presbyterian lads, of whom the writer was 
one, congratulated themselves that their bell was 
the larger and more mellow sounding of the tw^o. 

Like most children I w^as not very partial to church 
service but, for my compulsory sitting through the 
same, found compensating elements in the Sunday 
school immediately following. 

Miss Annie Osborn was my first Sunday school 
teacher and oftentimes she made the members of her 
class happy recipients of pretty little Sunday school 
cards. 

After w^ards I was a member of Mr. Johnston's 
class and finally belonged to Mr. Osborn's. 



122 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Our Sunday school song books at different times 
in my childhood were the '' Golden Censer," '' Fresh 
Laurels" and '' Bright Jewels." 

Each class was known by some term applied to it 
from Bible selections. Thus, for illustration, one 
class was called the Peacemakers and another, the 
Daughters of Zion. Four times a year we would 
have concerts comprising singing, recitation of 
verses from the scriptures, etc. 

An event of uncommon interest to the young peo- 
ple was a Sunday school picnic. Sometimes all the 
Sunday schools in the village would participate in 
a joint picnic some miles out of town necessitating, 
of course, the use of conve3^ances. 

The first picnic of this kind I remember, was held 
several miles up the Oneonta creek road. 

About 1866 the Sunday schools had a joint picnic 
in a grove on the west bank of the Otego creek 
about one mile above West Oneonta. 

The auditory of the old Presbyterian church sup- 
ported by means of short pillars of wood a gallery 
on the two sides and rear end of the service room, 
while the front end was taken up in a great degree 
by the pulpit with a row of short pews on either 
side, facing the same. 

That portion of the gallery located opposite the 
pulpit, contained the organ and choir, while the 
side galleries were for the use of visitors in case the 
downstairs seats were all occupied. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 123 

At each rear corner of the main floor of the ser- 

•vice room was a stove for burning wood and so hot 

would these corners sometimes become that the 

white paint on the neighboring woodwork in many 

places had raised in blisters. 

Although the stoves made a great heat it was, in 
very cold weather, more or less local in its influence 
and old people would accordingly at times take the 
precaution to bring to church with them, their foot- 
stoves. 

Between the ceiling and the roof of this church 
was a great dark unfinished place, always occupied 
by a colony of bats. During Sunday evening 
services, in the summer time, these unpleasant creat- 
ures, attracted by the lights, would flock into the 
room and draw more or less attention to their gyra- 
tions which were circumscribed only by the limits 
of the place. 

The diff'erent churches in order to help sustain 
their local organizations would have ice cream and 
strawberry festivals, (in their respective seasons) 
donations, mite societies and bazaars. 

During the holidays the children would be made 
happy by Christmas trees and New Year's baskets 
at the various places of worship. 

Relative to the pastors of this period the names of 
Van Dusen, Baldwin, Phelps, Smith, Peebles, Wales, 
Reynolds and Crowell will be remembered by many 
of my readers. 



124 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Regarding the more venerable laymen they will 
recall to mind the names of E. R. Ford, Elisha Shep- 
herd, Hezekiah Watkins, David T. Clark and per- 
haps some others I do not think of at the moment 
of writing. 

About this time the religious people of the village 
after a rather dormant period be^an to feel an 
awakened interest in their church affairs, both spi- 
ritual and temporal. 

The Methodists took steps that led to the building 
of a new church edifice while the two Baptist and 
Presbyterian organizations remodelled and other- 
wise improved their sanctuaries. The Free Will 
Baptists and Methodists also added bells to their 
steeples, the bell of the former being the largest one 
in town. 

The various churches were likewise fitted up with 
furnaces and registers for heating purposes — the 
first I had seen in Oneonta. 

During the winter of 1868-1869 the Presbyterians 
had services temporarily on the uppei' floor of the 
Bisseli Block, an apartment then known as Music 
Hall. Immediately following the completion of the 
work in the following spring upon their church 
building, a new organ having been added, the Rev. 
H. H. Allen commenced with the Presbyterians his 
long, faithful and satisfactory labors. 

There is but little ^eft now of those old sacred 
edifices but the bells, which are still performing their 
vocation in the same tones, we used to hear a gener- 
ation ago. 



1869 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

CRAVINGS FOR ADVENTURE. 

^jp^OWARD THE END of the winter of 1866- 
-^ 1867, upon returning home from the Dietz- 
street school at the close of the day I would some- 
times stop at the tenement house below our barn 
and pay my respects to a family living on the upper 
floor. 

It was my fortune during one of these visits to 
find among other books belonging to the lady of the 
house a cop}^ of one of a "highwayman series" of 
stories- 

This book was enclosed in a paper cover of bril- 
liant coloring and I found upon perusal that the 
little volume purported to give an accurate account 
of sundry famous episodes in the lives of Richard 
Turpin, Claude Duval and other gentlemen whose 
names are conspicuous in English history. 

From this same memorable day in which I took 
my first readings in lively fiction, life for a period 
assumed an entirely diff'erent phase and seemed 
cramped and circumscribed as I found it in Oneonta. 



126 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

It was not many months afierwards, however, 
before I lost interest in the Jesuitical plots apper- 
taining to the fortunes of the house of Stuart in 
Avhich Claude and Richard were alleged to have 
been factors and of the remarkable experiences of 
the two gentlemen as confined more particularly to 
their precarious calling. I found that our own 
country presented a field that had been utilized by 
sundry historians in a manner convincing to me 
that America possessed heroes compared with whose 
exploits the deeds of England's greatest men sank 
into comparative insignificance. 

Such men as Eagle-eyed Zeke, Nick of the AVoods 
and Rattlesnake-Dick were the heroes of the hour, 
and I found that the exalted opinion the writer had 
formed of these men, who were so singularly unos- 
tentatious in all that pertained to the little conven- 
tionalities of civilized life, was fully approved in the 
judgment of his boy companions. 

The ordinary humdrum character of everyday 
life now began to seem tame and commonplace to 
many of the village boys who, like the writer, felt a 
desire for startling adventure and born of this 
spirit were two phases of my early career ; one being 
an ambition to explore the neighboring forests and 
streams while the other was a desire for literary 
fame as a writer of Indian stories. 

Now these cravings were both shared in by E. D. 
Lewis, a boy a little older than the writer and, by 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 127 

means of a boat fortunately possessed by him, he 
liad, I learned subsequently, carried out the first im- 
pulse by making a complete exploration of the whole 
shore line of the mill pond, eventually extending his 
travels to a section of the Susquehanna River near 
the old red-covered bridge. 

Relative to the ambition for literary distinction, 
we made a mutual attempt to gratify it, but regard- 
ing this, I will attempt to give the reader our expe- 
rience a little later on in this narrative. 

Although the march of time had swept out of 
existence the aboriginal occupants of Oneonta's 
beautiful valley and left our generation unexposed 
to the assaults of the ruthless red man, quite a por- 
tion of the boy element of my native town was not 
disposed to accept this unsatisfactory condition of 
things without some murmur ings over our unhappy 
destiny. 

If the distinction Avas denied us of being contem- 
poraries and neighbors of the ancient Tuscaroras and 
Delawares and exposed to the terrible dangers and 
vicissitudes of frontier life, we concluded in some 
degree to cultivate their dress and leading charac- 
teristics of speech and manner, while to gratify our 
tastes for warfare, if we were denied actual foemen 
we made up our minds to improvise a few imagi- 
nary ones. 

Such progress was made in carrying out some of 
these ideas that several public exhibitions were 



128 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

soon after given by the boys in the old Oneonta 
House barn, in wliich some of the prominent actors 
were decked out in much of the paraphernalia and 
feathers, supposed to be essential to an Indian on 
the warpath. 

But it dawned upon us that the walls of a barn 
were not the most appropriate suggestions of what 
w^ere expected in the way of natural surroundings 
for a red warrior, whether he be within the limits 
of his wigwam or bounding along in the pleasures 
of the chase. We accordingly concluded to widen 
our field of operations. 

In furtherance of this new idea, it was but shortly 
afterwards that some of my companions had erected 
huts either in the swamp west of the Watkins' flat 
or on the wooded slopes in the vicinity of the 
village. 

This was late in the fall of the year and where 
Cherry street now is, my father had a hop yard, the 
poles of which were stacked for the winter around 
two walnut trees, making hollow,cone-shaped objects, 
in appearance not unlike the traditional habitations 
of our noble predecessors. 

I suggested to some of my friends the advisability 
of taking possession of these, but was overruled on 
account of their proximity to the haunts of man. 

The boys in the eastern part of town under the 
leadership of W. E. Yager 1 think, about this time 
actuated by the same spirit^ took possession of a 



OXEONTA MEMORIES 129 

section of country bordering on the Oneonta creek 
and beyond the extreme northern outskirts of 
the village. Upon this latter ground some skir- 
mishing occurred shortly afterwards between the 
two rival factions unattended, however, by any loss 
of life. 

Now we come to the literary phase before referred 
to. Indian stories during this period were read in 
school hours behind the atlas of almost every boy 
of a certain age, but nothing in the way of literature 
of this character had ever emanated from a local 
pen. This was an opportunity which E. D. Lewis 
and the writer concluded to take advantage of, with 
the assistance of Albert Marble. 

The latter boy was somewhat older than ourselves 
and was popularly believed to possess considerable 
erudition in the bright particular literary field we 
were partial to. 

To add spurs to our new ambition. Editor G. W. 
Reynolds of the Herald promised to publish our 
stor}^ — if it was a good one. 

We accordingly secured pen and ink, supple- 
mented by a large quantity of writing paper and 
betook ourselves to the supposed privacy of a 
sleeping-room in the old Oneonta House. 

I do not remember much of the details of this 
intellectual attempt. I do recollect, however, that we 
had pretty much exhausted our intellectual resources 
with the death of the leading Indian in the middle 



330 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

of the first chapter, when the small scope remaining 
to our imagination was abruptly dissipated by a 
burst of sarcastic laughter from Charlie LcAvis, who 
had, to our astonishment and dismay, witnessed the 
w^hole scene from the empty stovepipe hole over- 
head. 



^ ^ ^ 




1870 
CHAPTER XXXV. 

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS 

TART V. 

VERY POPULAR STORY WRITER for 

boys and girls in my younger days was 
William T. Adams, under the nom de plume of 
Oliver Optic, and I remember with what anticipa- 
tion we looked forward to the appearance of his 
periodical which usually, if not always, contained a 
fine continued story from his pen. 

During the year 1869 and the first half of 1870, 
several boy companions and the writer took great 
interest in the study of Natural History and gath- 
ered many specimens of various kinds, also Indian 
relics as well. 

An interesting locality, among numerous others, 
in the vicinity of Oneonta, to search for the latter 
was a place on father's farm called The Old Indian 
Field. This narrow lot was situated between two 
pieces of woods at the top of the first hill north of 
the village and upon a line with Dietz street. The 
woods referred to have, in recent times, been mostly 
cut away. 



132 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

W. E. Yager has preserved for over twenty years 
some portions of his collections made at the time of 
which I write, the most interesting relics of which 
are comprised in a case of butterflies and moths? 
many of which still retain much of their old-time 
brightness of color. 

On the eighth day of January, 1870, I went to 
New York in company with my father. The follow- 
ing two months I was at the house of my uncle, C. 
P. Huntington, much of the time, his residence 
being located at 65 Park avenue in that city. 

While there I attended school at Doctor Hull's 
Murray Hill Institute. 

I remember on the eve of Saint Valentine's day, 
I participated with sundry boys of the neighborhood 
in delivering valentines at different houses. 

About the same time I likewise visited my rela- 
tives, I. E. Gates and wife who were then living at 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. 

Sliortly afterwards I witnessed in New York a 
rendition of Shakespearean tragedy for the first time 
in my life. It was Hamlet with Edwin Booth in 
the title role. 

One afternoon toward the close of winter, C. P. 
Huntington's house caught fire, but the flames were 
extinguished before much damage had been done. 

I returned home via Cohoes, reaching Oneonta 
about the middle of March. 



ONEOXTA MEMORIES 133 

Shortly after my return, a terrible accident 
occurred between the depot and The Dam, resulting 
in the death of a young woman who was employed 
in the household of D. W. Ford. She was run over 
and horribly mutilated by the cars. 

At the time of the above accident snow was on 
the ground and the neighboring streams were more 
or less covered with ice, although we were then 
advancing well along into spring. 

About this period I was the proud possessor of a 
pair of club skates and a pistol. The latter was a 
mischievous little weapon and I suppose I may con- 
sider myself fortunate in not having been shot by it. 

A little later in the season, Clarence Spaulding 
and the writer set anight line in the waters of The 
Dam, but I don't think we caught any fish. 

The village boys, at this time, nearly all bore nick- 
names. 

Among the employes of my father about this period 
were Clinton Barnes, Lucius Hummel, Peter Milo 
Marble, Tanner Evans, George Madison, A. J. 
Cooper, Chas. Cornwell, Robert Palmer, W. Snow, 
Ezra Roe, George Roe, Silas Parish, Willis Welhnan, 
Henry A. Wise, Elias Eckler, Alfred Jacobs, John 
Dimon, Henry Dibble, Henry Bennett, Peter Van 
Valkenburg, Angel and David Alger. 

We now come to the end of the miscellaneous 
information which the writer desired to preserve 
in this series of papers. 



1870 



CHAPTER XXX\ I. 

FIRST TRIP TO NEW LISBON. 

^^ARLY IN THE AFTERNOON of April 16th, 
^^^ 1870, father and I started for the town of 
New Lisbon, to visit there a farm that had recently 
come into our possession. 

The sky was rather cloudy, and the roads being 
in good condition, we traveled along very comfort- 
ably. 

Father led the way with a two-horse team, while I 
kept close behind him with a horse and buggy. 

This occasion presented my first opportunity for 
seeing the Otego creek valley, and the village of 
Laurens. 

The latter had formerly been known as Crafts- 
town, being so called in honor of an early resident 
and General in the old State Militia, who had been 
gathered to the pioneer fathers some twenty years 
before the time of our visit. 

I was impressed by the old style appearance of 
some of the houses, facing the quiet main street. 
Great trees here sheltered from the rays of the sum- 
mer sun the beaten paths which answered for the 
sidewalks. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 135 

Few people did we see in the principal thorough- 
fare, however, for Laurens was not the busy town 
which had former!}" flourished here. Business had 
forsaken it, in a great degree, and entered other 
channels adjusting itself to the new conditions 
brought about by the building of the railroad 
through an adjoining line of towns. 

In former days there had been quite a large 
number of Quakers living in this vicinity and they 
had been able to sustain a church organization and 
meeting house as well, for some years. The latter 
was located on the outskirts of Laurens village, near 
the West Oneonta road. Sometimes, upon meeting 
for worship, if the Spirit failed to move them the 
Quakers would simply shake hands all around and 
solemnly disperse without any further public ob- 
servance of the day. 

From Laurens we followed up the road on the 
west side of the Otego creek. 

AVe passed Mount Vision, located a little to our 
right and diverged from the road that follows the 
main stream of the Otego. 

After ascending quite a high hill we crossed a 
wooden bridge built over a brook, which was tum- 
bling down its rocky bed far beneath. This place 
was called Fall Bridge, and during a certain period, 
many years before the date of our visit, there had 
been a postoffice located near where is now situated 
the schoolhouse, a little south of the bridge. 



136 ONKONTA MEMORIES 

At that time the people of Mount Vision had no 
postoffice nearer than this point. 

Far back in the century there were said to be only 
two men in the northern part of the town of 
Laurens but who were Democrats, hence the appel- 
lation of Jacksonville, which was applied to and 
borne by Mount Vision for so many years and even 
to the present day to a considerable extent. 

From Fall Bridge father and I saw our destina- 
tion in the distance, located about a mile north- 
wardly, in the valley of the West Branch of the 
Otego. Upon arriving at our farm it was nearly 
night. 

The house was a wood colored structure, located 
below the highway and on the bank of the creek. 
A short lane extended down to it from the road. It 
was a very old building and in its earlier days had 
been used as a hotel. Its dimensions were quite 
great, the main portion being two stories high with 
an addition of one story extending back. At each 
end of the main part of the building was an 
immense chimney with fire places down stairs. 

The first floor of the front part comprised, besides 
a great hallway with stairs leading upwards, a 
large room on either side. The upstairs part was 
divided by a partition into two great rooms also. 

The house faced toward the south, and had been 
quite pretentious in its day, no doubt. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 137 

Under the front eaves was a wide board reaching 
from one end of the structure to the other. This 
board was nailed to the house just above the clap- 
boards, and upon its smooth surface had been glued 
or tacked little pieces of wood, intended to convey to 
the eyes of the beholder an ornamental effect. 
Thus did the pioneers not aim exclusively to create 
an effect strictly useful in a practical sense, but in 
an humble way, were willing to add to it a little 
touch that should contribute to the gratification of 
an artistic longing which, we see, was not entirely 
dormant with them at that early day. 

The man who occupied the house at the time I 
made this first visit, bore the name of Joshua Roe, 
and his family comprised, besides himself and wife, 
two children, one named Nattie, being a boy six or 
seven years of age, while the youngest was a baby 
girl named Ina. 

The farm seemed to be rather out of the way of 
much public travel, and to my youthful mind, arriv- 
ing there in the early gloom of night as we did, our 
surroundings were not satisfactory. The location 
seemed uncanny and the effect was fully communi- 
cated to the great mysterious house. At that time 
I had never seen Joshua before. 

After supper in the great east room of the first 
floor we retired to an upper chamber, and I expressed 
some apprehensions to my father relative to our 
personal safety under the same roof with this man, 



138 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

who to me was a stranger and his character quite an 
enigma. 

It is not necessary to say, however, that we passed 
through the night in safety. 

The next morning before departing for Oneonta 
little Nattie Roe gave me a kingfisher's egg which 
he had found in a nest located in the bank of the 
creek just below the house. I was glad to add this 
egg to my collection. 

Father left with Mr. Roe the team he drove up, 
and after breakfast we started for Oneonta in our 
buggy, reaching home the same day. 



m m ^ 



1870 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

IN THE GRADED SCHOOL 

^N THE EARLY PART OF THE SPRING of 

1868, I left the private school of Miss Sullivan 
on Dietz street and entered the graded school. 

The latter had been recently established in the 
old district schoolhouse under the principalship of 
Wilbur F. Saxton and in the mean time work was 
progressing upon the new Union School building, 
located on Academy street. 

My last attendance at the old Grove street school 
was for but one term, upon the conclusion of which 
its doors as appertaining to an educational resort 
were closed forever. 

On the 26th day of October, 1868, the first term 
of school in the new building commenced and I had 
the honor of participating as a pupil upon that 
opening day. 

I was assigned a desk in the Intermediate Depart- 
ment, Miss Mary C. Vergeson teacher. My school 
number this first term was 11, while my seat mate, 
E. E. Carpenter, bore the number 12. 



110 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Upon the opening of the second term on Febru- 
ary 1, 1869, I was promoted to a seat upstairs in the 
room of Mr. Saxton, the principal, and my new 
number was 5. 

I attended school all of the third term, commenc- 
ing April 7, 1869, as well as all of the two terms 
preceding ; all of the fourth term commencing 
September 1, 1861^ ; the first five days only of the 
winter term commencing December 13, 1869, while 
of the sixth term which commenced April 4, 1870, I 
attended from Tuesday April 12th until Tuesday 
May 17th, both days inclusive. 

The following is a list of pupils comprising all 
who received tuition with me during the period 
that Mr. Saxton was principal and the writer was a 
pupil in the new building of the Oneonta Union 
Free School, Commencing October 26, 1868. 

Pkimary Department. 
Miss Lizzie Wing, Teacher. 

Term Commencing October 26, 1868. 

NO. NAMES NO. NAMES 

1 Ellen Morenus 7 Flora Strait 

2 Louisa Converse 8 Frank Strait 

3 Carrie Huntington 9 Josephine Alger 

4 Blanche Villoz 10 Ida Manchester 

5 Ellen Spencer 11 Lizzie Jones 

6 Jennie Ingalls 12 Margaret Jones 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



141 



Primary Department. — Continued. 



NO. 



NAMES 



13 Flora Vanderburg 

14 Hattie Wickham 

15 Helen Brewer 

16 Louisa Alton 

17 May Peebles 

18 George Peebles 

19 Lottie Bissell 

20 Louis Cohn 

21 Gould Marble 

22 William Maloney 

23 James Maloney 

24 Wm. Vanderburg 

25 Floyd Harrington 

26 George Long 

27 Henry Long 

28 Charlie Burgin 

29 Sherman Reynolds 

30 Robert Hopkins 

31 Charlie Farmer 

32 Charlie Fairchild 

33 Virgil Barnes 

34 Frank Bissell 

35 Elmer Howe 

36 Debois Hasbrooke 

37 Egbert Hasbrooke 



NO. 



NAMES 



38 Elmer Coates 

39 Hattie Bennett 

40 Lelia Doolittle 

41 Laverne Doolittle 

42 Wesley Smith 

43 Clarence Wetsel 

44 Clara Pope 

45 Cora Pope 

46 Minnie Pratt 

47 Mary White 

48 Ada Ford 

49 Willie Fairchild 

50 David Alger 

51 Edward Alger 

52 Alice White 

53 Hattie White 

54 Henry Driggs 

55 Ella Garvin 

56 Katie Hynes 

57 Florence Wood 

58 Avis Youngs 

59 Robert Keenan 

60 Frank Briggs 

61 Irving Briggs 

62 Georgie France 



63 Lottie France 



142 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



Intermediate Department. 
Miss Mary C. Vergeson, Teacher. 

Term Commencing Oct. 26, 1868. 



NO. NAMES 

1 Willie Ingold 

2 John Brewer 

3 Jerome Fuller 

4 Michael Maloney 

5 Howard Farmer 
() Richard Cooper 

7 Arthur Ford 

8 Willie Morris 

9 Eddie Barnes 

10 El Dorr Van AVcert 

11 AVillie Huntington 

12 Eddie Carpenter 

13 Reed Saunders 

14 Freddie Whitcomb 

15 Charles Pardee 

16 Charles Lewis 

17 Frank Pardee 

18 Howard Wickham 

19 Fred Spencer 

20 Ambrose Bissell 

21 Levern Reynolds 

22 Johnnie Johnston 

23 Union Ousterhout 

24 Carr Peck 

25 James Marble 
2G Frank Barnes 



NO. NAMES 

1 Melissa Gault 

2 Ettie Carr 

3 Helen Patterson 

4 Louise Elwell 

5 Lizzie Myers 

6 Alice Beach 

7 Ella Harper 

8 Martha Coates 

9 Lulie Ford 

10 Fannie McDonald 

11 Mary Johnston 

12 Nellie Ford 

13 Mary Reynolds 

14 Flora Jacobs 

15 Florence Bassett 

16 Estella Hemstreet 

17 Ida Parker 

18 Marion Beach 

19 Leanna Hubbard 

20 Viola Doolittle 

21 Kittie McGinley 

22 Orline Mickel 

23 Mary Pardee 

24 Fannie Cornish 

25 Marcia Doolittle 

26 Amanda Mickel 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



143 



28 
29 
30 



Intermediate Department 

NO. NAMES 

27 Mertoii Ford 

28 Morrell Nelson 

29 George Smith 

30 Emerson Hasbrooke 

31 Wirt McCrum 

32 Adelbert Butts 

33 Clarence Spanlding 

34 Jacob Cornish 

35 Emerald Jewell 

36 Charles Miles 

37 Frank Miller 

38 Willie Graves 

39 David Rose 

40 Leon Mendel 

41 Leopold Mendel 

42 Robbie Jacobs 

43 Willie Marble 

44 James Long 

45 Philo BrcAver 

46 Jackson Couse 

47 Dell Beames 

48 Eugene Alton 

49 George Jones 

50 Herman Sherwood 

51 Sylvester Alger 

52 Charles Dye 

53 Millard Briggs 

54 George Winslow 



-Continued. 

NO. NAMES 

27 Lizzie Swart 
Bertha Newman 
Lavanche Hudson 
Emma Bishop 

31 Nellie Lewis 

32 Anna Cope 



33 Ada Yager 

34 Adna Brazee 

35 Mary Swart 

36 Anna Beach 

37 Jennie Strait 

38 Mary Brazee 

39 Ida Brewer 

40 Alice Fairchild 

41 Rachael Cohn 

42 Jennie Fairchild 

43 Augusta Hasbrooke 

44 Mary Burgin 

45 Jennie W^atkins 

46 Alice Brownson 

47 Kittie Ramsey 

48 Anna Alton 

49 Ida Sherwood 

50 Augusta Alger 



144 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



Senior Department. 



Wilbur F. 


Saxton, Teacher. 


Term Comme 


ncmg Oct. i26. 1806'. 


NO. NAMES 


NO. names 


1 Clark McCrum 


1 Maggie Bixby 


2 Willie Yager 


2 Emma F. Gates 


3 Charles Baker 


3 Lucy Bond 


4 Clinton P. Van Wo 


ert 4 Nellie Myers 


5 Frank Peck 


5 Emma M. Birdsall 


6 Arthur W. Sullivan 


L 6 Louise J. Sullivan 


7 Wm. H. Figger 


7 Nettie Wickham 



8 Henry Saunders 

9 Orson A. Miller 

10 Charles Alton 

11 James R. Slade 

12 Chas. D. Youngman 

13 Austin C. Sage 

14 Eugene S. Parr 

15 Emery Smith 

16 Wm. H. Shellman 

17 Geo. W. Pardoe 

18 John Silvernail 

19 Noble Patterson 

20 Chas. Hasbrooke 

21 Chas. A. Smith 

22 Henry Potter 

23 Fitch Parish 

24 Mathew D. Cornish 

25 Orrin Yager 



8 Dora Roberts 

9 Matie C. Burton 

10 Alice Farmer 

11 Mary E. Blend 

12 Jennie McDonald 

13 Kate Sullivan 

14 Myra E. Bixby 

15 Nellie Howe 

16 Helena Uebel 

17 Mary Howe 

18 Libbie Culver 

19 Anna Hudson 

20 Viola Tucker 

21 Ella Whitcomb 

22 Belle Pardoe 

23 Julia Brewer 

24 Phebe Richards 

25 Leona L. Mickel 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



145 



Senior Department. — Continued. 



NO. NAMES 


NO. 


NAMES 


26 Ambrose D. TlmrstoE 


l26 AnnaHalsted 


27 Geo. W. Ingalls 


27 


Rachel E. Farmer 


28 Albert Marble 


28 


Alice Yager 


29 Edward D. Lewis 


29 


Hattie Ford 


30 Sam. J. W. Reynolds 


30 


Lou. Furman 


31 Alfred G. Shaw 


31 


Francelia Richards 


32 George W. Gates 


32 


Anna M. Wickham 


33 Wm. B. Bissell 


33 


Hannah Peebles 


34 Marvin D. Siple 


34 


Helen Sullivan 


35 George Harper 


35 


Mary Alton 


36 Willis Peebles 


36 


Hattie Ward 


37 Alpheus T. Sabin 


3 / 


Mary Mickel 


38 Richard Blakely 


38 


Amanda Smith, 

Laurens 


39 Wm. S. Basinger 


39 


Nettie Soule, Colliers 


40 George Young 


40 


Helena McCrum 


41 Emulus A. Reynolds 


41 Hattie E. Jenks 


42 Edward B. Pardoe 


42 


Mary Farrington 


43 Oscar Manchester 


43 


Hannah Strait 




44 


Ada Campbell 




45 


Julia V. Pattengill, 

New Lisbon 




46 Florence Eaton, 






New Lisbon 



146 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



Sundry other '' Senior " Pupils of 1868-1870. 



Azro Tyler, Westford 

Seeley. 

Leroy Mickel 
Herbert Van Woert 
David Wickham 
Andrew Wickham 
Geo. H. Barlow 
Quiiicy Parish 
Le Grand Parish 
Andrew Parish 
Bernhard Gross 
D. W. Chase 
Silas Parish 
Sam'l S. Shepherd 
Isaac B. Peet 
Sam'l N. Ballard 
Charles Brewer 
Herbert Spencer 
Andrew E. Fagin 
Chas. N. Cobb 
Charles Carl 
Peter Johnston 
Perry Blend 
Leonard Beach 
Harvey Perkins 

Our school text-book: 
were : 



Frank Reynolds 
Flora Dunham 
Emma Dunham 
Lena Brownell 
Anna Whit marsh 
Kate Manchester 
Miss Woodbeck 
Delia Brewer 
Ettie Rowe 
Ettie Spencer 
Ella Whitney 
Alice Hathaway 
Alice Emmons 
Ida Osterhout 
Amy Barnes 
Anna J. Riggs, 

Cannonsville 
Flora Beach 
Lillie Swart 
Alice C. Wright 
Martha Slosson 
Sarah H. Brewer 
Alice Betts 
Ella Stewart 
Agones Wood 



during 



the same period 



Sanders' Primer, Sanders' Union First Reader, 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 147 

Sanders' Union Second Reader, Sanders' Union 
Third Reader, Sanders' Union Fourth Reader, 
Sanders' Union Fifth Reader, Thompson's Mental 
Arithmetic, Thompson's Practical Arithmetic, 
Davies' Intellectual Arithmetic, Davies' Practical 
Arithmetic, Robinson's Intellectual Arithmetic, 
Robinson's Higher Arithmetic, Bullion's Gram- 
mar, Monteith's Geography, McNally's Geography, 
Wilson's U. S. History, Wood's and Gray's 
Botanies, Little's Philosophy, Little's Astronomy, 
Robinson's Algebra, Fasquelle's French series, and 
Harkness' Latin Grammar. 

The school building in 1870 comprised but a por- 
tion of its present dimensions, large extensions hav- 
ing been added on the north, south and west sides, 
reducing materially the area of the old play grounds. 

The cupola is almost the only portion of the 
building remaining unchanged. 

At the time of the last visit of the writer to 
Oneonta — in 1890 — he went up into the old cupola 
and found written there, upon the woodwork, names 
that aroused many recollections of the past, for they 
were nearly all familiar to his boyhood. 

Some of these names are all that we have left of 
earth pertaining to the writers, save their memo- 
ries. 

Morning and afternoon in those old days, the pupils 
were called to school by the ringing of the same bell 



148 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

which is now performing a like service for the pres- 
ent generation. 

School would commence each day with exercises, 
including music and prayer, in the room of the 
principal and the pupils of all grades were expected 
to be present and participate in these morning 
exercises. 

The Diusic was furnished at first by a melodeon 
and eventually by a cabinet organ ; the money with 
which the latter was purchased having been raised 
by the industry and enterprise of sundry pupils, I 
believe. 

Either Emma Gates or Mary Farrington, two of 
the girls attending school, usually acted as organist 
and most of the assembled students participated in 
the vocal part of the music. One of the favorite 
songs, which I partially recall, was a temperance 
melody, certain lines of which were something like 
this : 

"Pure cold water, 

water give to me ; 
For I'm a young abstainer, sir, 
From drinking customs, free." 

and upon writing these lines I almost imagine I can 
see the familiar form and conscientious face of our 
old principal as he stood on the platform at the con- 
clusion of the brief exercises, with call bell in hand, 
prepared to strike the signals which dismissed the 
lower grade pupils to their own apartments. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 149 

At recess the boys indulged in some of the school 
games I have already referred to in previous chap- 
ters. They likewise played baseball and 'practiced 
on the horizontal bar. The finest strike witli the 
bat I ever saw as a school boy was made by Harvey 
Perkins and the ball after attaining a great height 
landed far out in the Watkins' field. 

The Spring term of 1870 was memorable for several 
reasons and among them may be mentioned a walk 
to the Vlai in which the whole school participated, 
leaving town in the morning and returning late in 
the afternoon, carrying our lunch up the mountain 
with us as a matter of course. 

There were two school societies sustained at that 
time by the older pupils ; one entitled ''The Pio- 
neers" being conducted by the boys while the other 
was under the auspices of certain of the girls wlio 
called themselves, while in this capacity, the "S. 
G's." 

The list of teachers, besides Mr. Saxton, Miss 
Vergeson and Miss Wing, included Miss C. J. Rose 
who had charge of certain classes in an upstairs 
recitation room. 

I think Miss Vergeson and Miss Wing are still 
living, but Mr. Saxton and Miss Rose died many 
years ago. 

Mr. Saxton was a hardworking, painstaking, con- 
scientious man and although his temper was not 
always as easily controlled as was perhaps another 



150 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

person's of less sensitive and nervous organization, 
his heart was in the right place while his scholarly 
attainments and intellectual competency were above 
question. 

Miss Rose was always extremely neat in her 
appearance, dressing modestly and in good taste. I 
remember she sometimes wore at her throat a small 
gold and coral pin and occasionally one of some 
other material and design — I think a mosaic. 

Her pupils were fond of Miss Rose and at the 
same time she maintained good discipline and pre- 
served their respect for her authority. 

Although unknown to Fame, the influence of this 
modest young teacher, for aught we know to the 
contrary, may be felt by coming generations, long 
after her mortal frame has returned to its native 
elements and her spirit has found its ultimate abid- 
ing place in the eternal realms. 



^ ^ ^ 



1870 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

LIFE WITH A COUNTRY PHYSICIAN 

^N THE SUMMER OF 1870, I left Oneonta for 
a visit at tlie house of E. M. Wade, M. D., of 
Watervliet, Albany county, New York. 

I arrived at Cohoes in the afternoon of the day I 
left home and stopped there over nisjht at the resi- 
dence of B. W. Foster, my brother-in-law. 

Doctor Wade, as before stated, was an uncle of 
mine by marriage and resided on the Troy and 
Schenectady turnpike about five miles from the 
former city. 

From Cohoes I rode with a Shaker as far as the 
doctor's house. This was on a warm summer day 
and I remember my sedate appearing friend and 
traveling companion was not inclined to talk very 
much on the way. 

Arriving at my destination, I met with a very 
pleasant reception from my relatives who comprised 
besides the Doctor, my cousins James, Sarah and 
Annie. 

The surface of the country surrounding their 
home was rather level in character, being only 



152 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

slightly broken b}^ low lying hills. In the direction 
of Schoharie county, however, the Helderberg range 
could be seen looming up prominently. 

The soil was of a sandy loam as I remember, being 
free from the gravelly deposits and rocky formation 
that I w^as accustomed to seeing at home. 

The next house toward Schenectady from tlie 
Doctor's was the old homestead built by his father 
James Wade, M. D. Between the houses of father 
and son was located a piece of pine woods, also the 
family burying ground, the latter being surrounded 
by a thick evergreen hedge. 

Very early in the present century, the two 
friends — my grandfather, Doctor Saunders and 
Doctor James AVade had located about twenty miles 
apart as young physicians in the two adjoining 
counties of Albany and Saratoga. Their respective 
professional fields in a physical sense approached 
each other near Eound Lake where the two doctors 
would sometimes meet each other on their rides and 
occasionally hold consultations in critical cases. 

This friendship extended to the different members 
of the two families to such a degree that the elder 
sons of the households studied medicine together, 
Eventually my grandfather's oldest daughter, Sarah, 
was married to the senior son of the other house. 

Old Doctor Wade was a brother of Senator Ben 
Wade of Ohio and i)Ossessed certain of the latter's 
determined and indomitable characteristics of mind. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 153 

At the time of my visit both my grandfather and 
his friend had passed away, while the latter's son 
and successor was in turn advancing considerably 
beyond the meridian of life. 

Doctor E. M. Wade was a man of more than 
ordinary ability in his profession and had a large 
ride. 

I used to accompany him frequently on his visits 
to patients as far as his places of destination and 
while he was inside the houses of the sick I would 
remain without, holding the horse. 

I shall never forget his easy wit, fund of good 
stories and unselfish character, all of which com- 
bined to make him charming company and a 
popular man, respected and admired by old and 
young alike. 

During this visit my cousin James, several 
of the sons of a neighbor named Sutliff and the 
writer would sometimes hitch up a horse to a 
light spring wagon toward the close of day and 
drive to the waters of the Mohawk, several miles 
distant, where we were fond of going in bathing. 

The beautiful sunsets of that peaceful valley still 
shine in memory, through twenty intervening 
years. 

^ ^ ^ 



1870. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

LAST DAYS OF BOYHOOD AT HOME. 

^K Y SCHOOL LIFE IN ONEONTA closed 
J^lt^ forever on Tuesday, May 17th, 1870. 

My health was not very good at that period and it 
was deemed advisable for me to abandon studies for 
a time. 

I was away from home much of the following 
summer, returning to Oneonta August 31st, greatly 
improved in a physical sense. 

On September 14tli, I started for Norwalk, Con- 
necticut, where 1 passed most of the three following- 
years, in the house and under the tuition of Doctor 
J. C. Fitch, who conducted a boarding-school for 
boys. 

Before departing from Oneonta, I realized that 
my boyhood days in the town of my birth were 
fast drawing to a close; that for me a chapter of life 
was about to open that would radically differ in 
some respects from all that had preceded it, as is 
necessarily the case in the experience of ever}^ boy 
upon first leaving home to take up his abode with 
strangers. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 155 

The impending change had, in one sense, a 
depressing influence upon my mind; for, although I 
fully realized that my advantages, in an educational 
sense, would in all probability be enhanced, I could 
not, at the same time, contemplate the severance, 
perhaps permanently, of many ties binding me to 
home and nearly all the associations I had ever 
formed in life, without experiencing in advance the 
pangs of separation. 

I participated in the sports of my companions 
with all the youthful enthusiasm of old ; but in the 
silent watches of the night, with no artificial and 
fleeting buoyancy derived in a contagious way from 
my comrades, to sustain my spirits and prevent my 
thoughts from turning inward, then would the state 
of my mind become serious and border on the 
melancholy. 

The outdoor amusements in which I took part, in 
the early hours of these last evenings of my boy- 
hood in Oneonta, had for their location the grounds 
surrounding the house of the father of my early 
childhood friend and companion, Arthur Sullivan ; 
and the spot which witnessed the termination of the 
mutual sports of our youth was the same place that 
beheld their inception ten years before. 

Time has so widely separated those play-fellows 
who used to meet on pleasant evenings in the long 
ago that only two, out of twelve, remain in the 
haunts of our childhood. The balance have been 



156 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

mostly absorbed by the mighty West, and the events 
that entered into and formed a part of their early 
lives are now beginning to fade and eventually will 
seem to them more like the fabric of a dream than 
actual realities as they once were. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER XL. 

1872 



^Ijl^HE FIRST PART of the period of 1865— 
W 1872 saw the opening up of a number of 
new thoroughfares, which are now among the most 
prominent ones in town. They were Ehn, Wahiut, 
Grand, Division, Prospect, Center, Church, Me- 
chanic and Broad streets. 

Ford, Huntington, Baker, Yager and Miller are 
the names which stand forth conspicuously in con- 
nection with this great addition to the street system 
of Oneonta. 

About the close of this period the avenues opened 
through the Watkins' farm, could be added to the 
corporation map. 

The thoroughfare running parallel to and between 
the railroad and the Mill Ditch, extending from 
lower Main street to the freight-house was first 
opened to the public in October, 1865. 

In the fall of the same year, when Oneonta was 
the railroad terminus, our town received and sent 
out passengers by seven daily stage coaches each way. 
Of these, Unadilla required two and Cooperstown, 



158 ONEOJ^TA MEMOPdES 

Delhi, Franklin, Butternuts and Norwich one each, 
the latter stage accommodating the people of Morris 
and New Berlin as well. 

The same fall witnessed the construction of the 
Hathaway House (originally called the Eagle Hotel) 
and the frame store opposite, on Broad street, the 
latter building being erected by E. R. Ford, Esq. 

In the first half of 1866 there was a public move- 
ment made toward the establishment of a new 
county in the interest of the vicinity towns and 
Oneonta especially. 

In the same year Bissell and Saunders erected the 
first brick business block in town. 

About 1867 the large agricultural implement 
works of Ford and Howe were built near the corner 
of Mechanic and Broad streets. 

The year 1868 saw^ the establishment, by G. A. 
Dodge, of the Susquehanna Independent, — the first 
Democratic newspaper published in Oneonta. 

About this time the wooden sidewalk on the south- 
erly side of Main street was first curbed and the ad- 
jacent gutter first paved with cobble-stones. 

In August, 1868, the Jacob Farrington brick 
foundry was destroyed by fire and about the same 
period, the new union school building was completed. 

The fine new houses of E. D. Saunders, A. II. Dut- 
ton. Jay McDonald, H. N. Rowe and Cope Brothers 
on Elm and Walnut streets ; also those of David J. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 159 

Yager, and Ransom Mitchell on Main and River 
streets, respectively, were all built about this time. 

During the years 1869 and 1870 Oneonta did not 
change materially, but in 1871 the village took a 
fresh start following the commencement of work on 
its first round house and railroad repair shop. 

The First National Bank of Oneonta commenced 
business about the same time. 

In the year 1872 the village received additional 
banking facilities with the opening of David Wil- 
ber's bank. 

The following list comprises the names of sundry 
householders, etc., who were fellow townspeople of 
the writer's during either a part or all of the two 
periods of his residence in Oneonta a generation or 
more ago. Some of the people referred to, died 
before the year 1872 and others did not reside in 
Oneonta until shortly after that year. 

Names of people mentioned elsewhere in this book 
are intended to be omitted in this list. 

The writer has endeavored to include the name 
of every person of the class above specified, as well 
as certain others, who resided in Oneonta village 
within his recollection prior to the year 1871 ; also 
the more prominent of those who moved to our town 
within the next three or four years following. 

There are doubtless some names which should 
appear here that are omitted, but not intentionally. 



160 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

A. R. Allen, John Amsden, James Allen, Jerome 
Alger, B. Abell, J. W. Adams, Mr. Alpangh. H. 
Alger, R. S. Adgate. 

W. L. Brown, D. W. Brainard, Romeyn Brown, H. 
E. Bundy, S. M. Ballard, M. S. Briggs, I. D. Bullock, 
G. W. Butts, E. Benjamin, S. Bunn, Harvey Barnes, 
J. Brown, AVarren Burton, A. Brewer, Stephen 
Barnes, L. Broadwell, Perry Bennett, Mr. Bassett, 
Jenks Bowen, Homer Brewer, Mr. Bristol, George 
Bixby, C. N. Beach, Dewitt C. Barnes, George Bis- 
sell, A. D. Bessey, Joseph Bowen, Oscar Beach, Vic- 
tor Beach, William Bedford, Mr. Bedford, Nelson 
Ballard, A. Barnes, N. Beers, Mr. Brandt, Nathan 
Bridges, C. Bergin, E. G. Bixby, Andrew Brazee, A. 
Bissell, 0. A. Benton, M. H. Bissell, Newell Beach, 
Fred. Bissell, N. A. Beers, Charles Butts, David Ben- 
nett, E. W. Bennett, D. Boardman, E. S. Bell, J. L. 
Burtis, Charles T. Bush, M. D., Mr. Benedict, Rob- 
ert Boocock, M. D., Mr. Bresack, Homer Broadwell, 
Stephen Bull, Mr. Bradt, John Burt, Jr., Gilbert 
Bligh, A. M. Barnes, George Bligh, Robert Beach, 
G. W. Blend, R. D. Briggs. 

John Cope, L.T. Coates, Horace Card, AV. H. Couse, 
A. M. Carver, C. Crosier, Frank Crosier, Gilbert 
Campbell, John A. Comstock, James Cope, Mr. Cor- 
nell, B. M. Coy, A. J. Cooper, C. E. Currier, Thadeus 
Carr, Elvin Cutshaw, Mr. Chappell, Charles Coates, 
C. S. Carpenter, J. B. Cleveland, J. B. Camp, Jesse 
Cutler, C. W. Carpenter, M. J. Council, H. G. Coon, 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 1^1^ 

J. W. Carpenter, H. E. Conant, Mr. Capron, Charles 
D. Curtis, Rev. W. N. Cobb. 

S. Deyo, Samuel F. Donnelly, Philip Dorsey,Thos. 
Doyle, Mr. Disbrow, John S. Driggs, Irving T. Doo- 
little, P. S. Dunham, John Dewar, S. Doolittle, A. 
D. Dye, T. L. Dawson, A. D. Dimmick, W. W. Dar- 
bee. 

George F. Entler, M. D., L. S. Emmons, Carson 
Emmons, N. Edmonds, D. Ehle. 

Sylvester Ford, Julius Fern, John B. Fletcher, 
Raymond Ford, Clinton E. Ford, Charles Freiot, 
Joseph S. Fritts, Daniel Falls, Jesse Fairchild, Josiah 
Farmer, 0. Fleming, Charles E. Foole, William 
Fuller, Phineas C. Fish, Edwin T. Farmer, H. A. 
Fonda, G. Finn. 

Frank Gould, L. H. Groat, M. F. Gould, P. C. Gil- 
christ, M. Gurney, Jay Gregory, Rev. A. Griffin, H. 
C. Grant, F. C. Gardner, Charles Gates, S. J. Gile,N. 
Graves, Albert Graves, W. Gillett, Ezra Graves. 

Rev. E. C. Hodge, Henry Howe, George Hunter, 
George HufFord, S. T. Hudson, A. N, Howland, Mr. 
Huston, S. Harrington, E. W. Hopkins, N. Hoag, 
Charles Howard, Al. Hathaway, P. Hynes, R. V. 
Humphrey, J. P. Hudson, S. K. Huggins, Aaron 
Houghtaling, H. Hudson, Charles C.Houghton, E. 
Haswell, W. H. Hider, V. A. Hyam, Earnest Heu- 
ther, E. Hathaway, N. Hemstreet. 

Mrs. Ingalls, John Ingalls, Lewis Ingalls. 



162 OXEONTA MEMORIES 

W. H. Jefferson, Charles A. Jones, John Jones, 
Mr. Jacobs, J. W. Jenks, E. M. Johnson, J. K. P. 
Jackson, E. B. Jewell, Myron D. Jewell, E. A. Jones. 

Marquis L. Keyes, Geo. Kirkland, Melville D. 
Keyes, M. Keenan, Edward Kniskern, Kelsev E. 
Kelly. 

A. C. Lewis, H. L. Luther, W. A. Lakin, Philan- 
der Lane, B. H. Loring, L. B. Lennon, Leonard 
Leal, Jacob Lindsay, A. Lyon, Mr. Long, J. Lovett, 
F. Lathan, Frank Latson, A. B. Lacy, B. Loveland, 
Mr. Losee. 

Samuel Mendel, T. S. Mears, Wesley Miller, George 
Mattice, A. Mandelbaum, Andrew Mendel, H. S. 
Morse, B. Manzer, John Mills, W. H. Mereness, C. 
L. Mickel, G. S. Mallory, Rev. 0. T. Moulton, A. S. 
Miles, Asel Marvin, M. Maloney, Daniel McGinley, 
J. W. Mann, T. A. Maynard, S. Moore, Mrs. L. W. 
Miller, Doctor McDougal, R. W. Miller, Porter Mor- 
ton, J. Morenus, George Madison, H. Mosher, T. K. 
Mosher, Jas. T. Marble, Jacob Meyer, J. Massett, 
W. L. Miller, J. B. Morrison, L. D. Moore, G. Mc- 
Card, P. J. McGuire, Morrell Mitchell, D. H. Mead, 
Willard Morrell. 

Hartford D. Nelson, T. A. Norton, A. J. Nowlan, 
J. F. Newell, S. Newman, C. Newman, H. M. Nor- 
throp. 

J. M. Ostrom, George W. Ostrander, J. H. Ostran- 
der, F. Ottersen, Mr. Osterhout. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 163 

0. W. Peck, M. D,, Owen Phillips, E. Pelzer, W. 
M. Potter, E. M. Parmelee, C. B. Pepper, C. O. Payne, 
Kev. I. N. Pardee, George Parr, A. F. Packard, W. 
Packard, W. H. Peck, Stephen Parish, Joseph Price, 
John T. Pardee, J. Potter, J. D. Primmer, Geo. A. 
Pardee, Mr. Pruyn, George Powell, Walter Pardoe, 
I. H. Peters, Welcome Parish, Thomas Pierce, Leon- 
ard Pratt, Alonzo Pratt, W. Patterson, Mr. Petrie, 
J. F. Perkins, 0. E. Pratt, Orrin Packard, Leroy 
Pratt, G. Potter, Benjamin Pierce, J. Pendleton, H. 
Parish. 

Reuben Reynolds, John Roberts, G.W.Reynolds, 
M. N". Rowe, R. Richards, A. Rowland, E. Roberts, 
George Rowe, John Ruland, E. C. Reynolds, J. 
C. Richmond, A. G. Reynolds, George Reynolds, 
Charles Reynolds, T. H. Rockwell, Mrs. Ray, 
Emulus A. Reynolds, Byron Rose, Morton Radcliffe, 
Mr. Rynus. 

George Scramling, James Stewart, Walter Scott, 
Semour Scott, A. G. Strong, E. A. Scramling, H. C. 
Stratford, Algernon Sabin, George Snow, A. J. Sul- 
livan, Z. H. Sloat, Howard Saunders, Chester Smith, 
Irving Steere, E. J. Stever, William Scott, P. Smith, 
J. A. Sargeants, Mr. Seymour, M. D. Safford, E. 
Smith, George D. Scrambling, A. D. Smith, Charles 
Smith, Rodney Snow, H. Spaulding, Mr. Spude, H- 
G. Strong, Mr. Sloan, Wm. Spaulding, M. Spencer, 
W. H. Siple, Isaac Spencer, Charles Stickles, J. D. 
Stowell, Erastus Short, C. Spencer, W. K. Sherwood, 



164 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

H. P. Skinner, Charles Saxton,H. R. Skinner, Frank 
Strait, George Swart, J. B. Shove, E. B. Shove, H. 
C. Smith, Mrs. Scanling, H. M. Schofield. 

W. A. E. Tompkins, A. Teller, C. Thompson, Mr. 
Tarbox. 

Christian Uebel, C. Utter. 

E. M. Vosburgh, D. A. Van Wie, Andrew Van 
AVie, H. B. VanAlstine, A. L. Villoz, Mr. Vander- 
burg, Mr. Vincent, J. 0. Voorhies, L. Vrooman, 
C. Vandervoort. 

George I. Wilber, W. H. Woodin, Monroe West- 
cott, H. G. Wood, Fred Wilcox, Charles J. Wilbur, 
Parker Wilson, Paul Wads worth, Charles A. Wat- 
kins, Henry Wickham, George Watkins, J. P. Wells, 
A. C. Walcott, T. Willahan, Mr. Whitcomb, James 
Mc D. Watkins, Charles Wads worth. Philander 
Wright, J. H. Wetsell, Mr. Winslow, E. H. Wright, 
Henry C. Whitman, Edward Williams, A. F. Wing, 
Gould Washburn, A. R. Watkins, A. Walling, Charles 
Ward, R. Winn, AY. H. Williams, Chauncey Ward, 
Eugene Washbon, R. White, A. Weenink. 

Myron Yager, C. Yagel, D. Young, T. Yager. 



^ ^ ^ 



J872 



CHAPTER XLI. 

FIRST TRIP TO MASONVIILE. 

pT WAS WELL ALONG in the summer of 1872 
^ that my father and I left Oneonta at an early 
hour of a certain afternoon, bound for the above 
mentioned town. 

A little while before this period, we had acquired 
some landed interests in that section of Delaware 
county which occasionally had necessitated father's 
presence there but at the time referred to, the writer 
had never visited the same. 

I remember it was shortly after the ha3nng season 
as, seated in our buggy drawn by a bay horse named 
''Billy," we made our way down the valley of the 
Susquehanna. 

At Otego I noticed some pleasant looking homes, 
among them being the residence of William Birdsall 
with spacious grounds surrounding, located on the 
northerly side of the leading street. 

The large barn of this gentleman surmounted by 
a conspicuous wooden elephant always attracted the 
attention of strangers. 



166 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

After leaving Otego village we crossed several 
tributaries of the river, one of which father said 
was called Flax Island creek. 

It was a warm, dusty day and upon arriving at 
the Wells Bridge tavern we stopped for a few min- 
utes and watered our horse. 

Resuming our journey we presently reached Una- 
dilla village which, with its wide main street run- 
ning parallel with the river, beautiful shade trees 
and fine stone sidewalks, strengthened the agreeable 
impression which I originally formed of the place 
at the time of my prior visit already referred to. 

Crossing the Susquehanna here, we left our own 
fair county behind us and entered the more hilly 
precincts of Delaware. 

Toward dark we arrived at the house of a Mr. 
Heath, farmer and ex-deputy sheriff who at that time 
lived not far from the Sidney-Masonville boundary 
line. 

It was now cool, with indications of frost and the 
invitation extended us, by Mr. Heath, to remain 
over night at his house I was pleased to see my 
father accept. 

Our host lighted his lantern and showed us the 
way to the barn and our horse having been duly 
cared for, we returned to the house where supper 
was soon prepared in our behalf by Mrs. Heath. 

Besides Mr. Heath and wife I met, at the same 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 1()7 

time, their daughter, Mrs. Marble, who was visiting 
her parents accompanied by an infant child. 

The latter lady was the wife of Peter Milo Marble 
who had formerly been employed by us at Oneonta 
but was then located on a farm of ours which we 
designed visiting the following day. 

After some conversation with the various mem- 
bers of the household, father and I were assigned 
to a bedroom, small and neat in appearance, the 
inner walls of which were constructed of some dark 
colored wood from floor to ceiling, making a rather 
novel and pleasing effect. 

Somehow or other, those bedroom walls made a 
very lasting impression on my mind, nineteen years 
having come and gone since I saw them for the first 
and last time. 

The next morning we arose early and after break- 
fast resumed our journey, the sun shining warm 
and bright from a cloudless sky. 

Passing through quiet Masonville village, we con- 
tinued up the valley about two miles ; then taking 
a right hand road and travelling thereon a mile or 
two, reached our farm where Mr. Marble came out 
of a new unfinished house, on the easterly side of 
the highway to meet us. 

I had not seen him for several years and our 
meeting was correspondingly pleasant. 

Father was building the house referred to, near the 
summit of the divide at the head of Mormon Hoi- 



168 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

low, thus commanding an extensive view in the 
direction of Cannonsville. After he had given Milo 
some directions regarding certain proposed improve- 
ments on the farm we repaired to the house where 
lunch was improvised in a bachelor's way. 

Later in the afternoon we continued our journey 
in the direction of Cannonsville. 

Night began to overtake us not far from where 
the Mormon Hollow road joins the Trout Creek 
road and almost simultaneousl}^ we reached the 
house and sawmill of a man named Van Valken- 
burg with whom father had business relations. 
Upon invitation of this gentleman we concluded to 
remain with him over night. 

A little while before supper I noticed a boy some- 
what younger than myself ride by on a handsome 
pony. I was told the lad's name was Johnson. 

As the shades of evening were enveloping this 
little valley which presented a scene so unlike my 
own home surroundings, I began to feel a trifle 
lonely and homesick. The frogs in the neighboring 
mill pond were now sending up a full chorus and 
rather added to tlie natural melancholy that seemed 
to surround the departing day. 

I went to bed early and was presently oblivious 
to all surroundings. 

Leaving Van Valkenburg's the next morning 
we reached Oneonta the evcnino; of the same dav. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

BOARDING-SCHOOL, 1870-1873, 

y ALWAYS LOOK BACK to my experience at 
^ boarding-school with a great deal of pleasure, 
for it was an extremely interesting feature of my 
life. 

The natural surroundings of this new residence 
were very unlike what I had been accustomed to, in 
my Otsego county home. The hills of Norwalk 
lacked the dimensions and the great wooded slopes 
so familiar to Oneonta people. Moreover, the land- 
scapes were typical of New England scenery — being 
decidedly rocky in their aspect. 

Long Island Sound could be seen in the winter- 
time from our school-grounds — it being but a few 
miles away, toward the south. In the summer, 
however, the marine view was lost on account of 
the intervening foilage. 

In those days the borough of Norwalk was six or 
seven times as large as Oneonta and, moreover, of 
ancient origin even in Revolutionary days. 

Our school-building, located on the side of a hill 
near its summit, close to the western limits of and 



170 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

overlooking the town, was a three-story and base- 
ment structure, with a large play-ground in front of 
its terraced slopes. This place of recreation extended 
down the hill toward Norwalk and comprised one 
level piece of ground where we used to play baseball, 
while over toward the northern limits of the same 
was a miniature lake. 

Doctor Fitch, the head of the school, was a man 
who stood about six feet three inches high in his 
stockings and was accustomed to being obeyed. He 
had passed middle age at this time; always kept his 
face shaven smooth, and wore a wig. 

There were, perhaps, twenty boarding pupils at 
our school and about as many *' day scholars." The 
Doctor had sundry assistant teachers who aided him 
in imparting knowledge to our eager young minds. 
His discipline was good and his modes of punish- 
ment for offenders, I thought, were rather original. 

For illustration, when a pupil was not attending 
to his duty, perchance the following dialogue would 
occur : 

The Doctor—'' Master Jones ?" 
Master Jones — " Sir." 
The Doctor—" What are you doing ?" 
Master Jones — "Nothing, sir.'' 
The Doctor — " Will you have it sweetened ?" 
This, of itself, was sufficient warning to a prudent 
lad, even if he escaped with nothing worse. Master 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 171 

Jones might have been lacking in that quality how- 
ever and presently have repeated the offense. Then 
there was no further warning ; no additional inti- 
mation of impending trouble, but the young gentle- 
man suddenly found himself looking down from an 
elevation of seven or eight feet at the ends of two 
powerful arms. Below him was a pair of cold, blue 
eyes, and for spectactors there w^ere forty delighted 
boys. A moment later the unfortunate lad was 
placed in a standing position on the Doctor's desk, 
w^here for, perhaps, a quarter of an hour he answered 
the purpose of a powerful warning for the balance 
of the pupils. 

Sunday mornings and evenings Doctor Fitch and 
the head teacher would walk us to church in a pro- 
cession of two by two, and after service conduct us 
home again. 

There were certain town boys who looked upon us 
with marked dislike and did not hesitate to show it 
if a good opportunity presented itself to them. 

Sometimes the Doctor would take us out boating 
and fishing. We would occasionally descend the 
Norwalk river as far as Bett's Island, the *' Calf 
Pasture," etc. 

A colored man, who was both deaf and dumb, 
took care of our boat when we were not using it. 
The Doctor could converse with him rapidly by 
manipulating his fingers so as to make the letters 
of the unfortunate man's alphabet. 



172 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

While in Norwalk I heard lectures from some of 
the most eminent men on the platform. 

In the summer vacation of 1871 I visited Cali- 
fornia in company with my uncle, C. P. Hunting- 
ton, while in the corresponding vacation of 1872 I 
was at Burnt Hills and Oneonta, at the former 
place seeing my grandmother Saunders for the last 
time on earth. 

The faculty, of the Norwalk school which I at- 
tended, comprised besides Doctor Fitch, Messrs. 
Kimball, Colburn and Jones ; also Misses Bixby 
and Buell. 

Of the students I recall to mind the following : 
Bissell, Byington Brothers, Baird, Baker, Mott, Sil- 
liman, Lynes, Crofut, Fred and AVallie Knapp, 
Sheldon Brothers, Lockwood Brothers, Chaffee, 
Bishop, Conklin, Huntington, Kendall, Stearns, 
Randall, Nichols, Moody, Couch, Prowitt, Fowler, 
Miller, Stoddard, Hoyt, Beatty, Betts, Carter, Ben- 
nett, Green, Curtis, Fisher, Cooley, Cousins, Cape, 
etc., nearly all bearing old New England names. 

Some of the boys were in those days disposed to 
look upon the Doctor as a tyrant, but I think of all 
of them living at the present time, there is not one 
but would say he was a good and worthy man. 



I have before me an old program of the Oneonta 
school public exercises, held on Tuesday evening, 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 



173 



June 25, 1872, at the Academy street school huild- 
ing. Thinking it will be of interest to those living 
whose names are mentioned, I take the liberty of 
inserting in this place a copy of the same : 



Order of Exercises 

Music 

Prayer 
1 The Two Villages 

J The Angel of Night 
^ ) The Angel of Day - 

3 The Used-up Candidate 

4 Dolly Chesterfield 

Music 

5 Anna Glenn 

6 The End of the Bow - 

7 Essay — Self Control 

8 The Rival Speakers Mertie Ford, Charles Lewis 

9 Ctesar Rowan - - Leon Mendel 

Music 

10 Milton on the Loss of his Sight, Amanda Mickel 

11 Curiosit}^ — Translation from the French 

Kate Sullivan 

12 Dialogue — Country Cousins and City Cousins 

13 The Raven - - - Clara Pope 

Music 



Hattie Ford 

Jennie Watkins 

Alice Moody 

Eugene Alton 

Maggie Jacobs 

Emily L. Bull 

Anna Alton 

Hattie Cummings 



174 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

14 Essay — Live for a Purpose - Orline Mickel 

15 Dialogue — Tied to an Apron String. 

16 The Eoman Soldier - Arthur Sullivan 

17 Gymnastic Exercises. 

Music 

Reading Promotions 

Music 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER XLUI. 
HOME LIFE IN 1873. 

WOWARD THE END OF MARCH, 1873, I 
left the educational institution of Doctor 
Fitch and finished my school life simultaneously. 
It was not without considerable regret in some 
respects that I took my departure from this New 
England household, where I had formed many 
pleasant attachments among my teachers and fellow 
pupils. 

Years afterwards I visited the old seminary and 
found the venerable Doctor dead, the great building 
tenantless and the breath of decay in the atmos- 
phere. 

Shortly after leaving the Norwalk school I returned 
to Oneonta, reaching there a little after dark of an 
April day. Upon my arrival, I found the snow still 
lingering and the night decidedly cool. The warm 
atmosphere of our old sitting-room seemed to add 
to the welcome accorded me. 

My cousin, Annie Van Vranken, was visiting us 
at this time and the same train I reached Oneonta 
on, likewise brought her father who had some busi- 



176 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

ness to attend to in that vicinity. A day or two after 
my arrival I accompanied him to the town of Mere- 
dith where we took dinner at E. Osterhout's and 
returned home toward eveninsf. 

o 

About this time, father had a number of men 
making improvements on a piece of land owned by 
him and located on the Babcock Hollow road not 
far from The Plains. 

When the spring had so far advanced that the 
roads were fairly dry, father and I made a trip to 
Tompkins. We left Oneonta early in the afternoon 
and reached Young's Station on the Midland, rail- 
way about five o'clock. At this point it looked like 
rain, so we arranged to stay over night with Mr. 
Young, a son of James C. Young the latter at that 
time being a prominent farmer and money loaner 
living in the vicinity of Otsdawa. 

The next morning we left Mr. Young's and toward 
noon reached father's farm in Masonville where we 
had dinner. We then continued our trip as far as 
Loomis brook where father had another farm, occu- 
pied by a man named Joseph Webster. From this 
latter point we returned to Young's Station the same 
day, where we remained all liight again, reaching 
home the next day. 

Along in the summer I spent a week or two on a 
dairy farm of ours, located a mile and a quarter 
southerly from Colliers. This farm was in the town 
of Milford and bordered on the Maryland township 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 177 

and Delaware county lines. The place was nearly 
surrounded by woods. Father bought this farm in 
1867 and putting up a cheap house thereon, sent 
Isaac Corn well to occupy it that same year. Mr. Corn- 
well was then advanced considerably in years. He 
had formerly been a lumberman on the Delaware riv- 
er and at one period of his life had been a person of 
great physical strength. Even in 1867 he retained 
much of the vigor of his earlier days. He bore the 
reputation of a very honest and industrious man. 

When I visited this farm in 1873 old Mr. Corn- 
well was dead and James his son was occupying the 
place, a fine new farmhouse and barn having been 
recently constructed thereon. 

The approach from the main road was through a 
narrow strip of woods, which made the farm seem 
very much out of the way and a little romantic in 
its location. 

The first time I was ever there was upon return- 
ing to Oneonta from a trip to Milford that father 
and I made, the same year he bought the place. 

At the time of the last visit referred to, E. Wil- 
liams and John Carroll were assisting us there in 
haying. About a year later father erected a stone 
dairy house for the use of Mr. Cornwell, Jacob Y. 
Winne building the walls thereof wdth his accus- 
tomed celerity and good workmanship. In this 
dairy house is a door that formerly belonged to the 
old Oneonta House, built by Mr. Angell. 



178 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

At the time father bought this farm there 
were, perhaps, twenty acres of pine timber on the 
same which he cut and had sawed for his own use. 
The hite Jared Good3^ear owned forty acres of pine 
near us which father tried to buy of him. Mr. 
Goodyear's well known partiality to that class of 
timber land, which was then getting very scarce, 
found decided expression in a negative answer. 

Toward the end of May I accompanied father on 
a trip to Edson's Corners and the same month, he 
sent me to Delhi on some legal business. He was then 
having litigation with a man named Wm. Van 
Zandt who lived in Tompkins. It was my first visit 
to the capital of Delaware county. The business 
there delayed me until well along in the day, and 
when coming down the Swart Hollow road late 
in the evening, upon my return to Oneonta, I 
met father on the way to meet me, having become 
alarmed over my prolonged absence. 

In the summer of the same year, Obed Carroll 
and family arrived from Missouri. Mr. Carroll 
commenced work for us about the same time. He 
was one of five brothers, all of whom were in the 
employ of father at one time. 

On the morning of July 22d, 1873, while stand- 
ing in the doorway of our barn on West street I 
heard one of the village church bells toll seventy- 
five times. The evening before, my uncle, E. I). 
Saunders, had called at our house and informed us 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 179 

that E. R. Ford, Esq., who had been sick for some 
time, was rapidly sinking. The tolling of the bell 
proved to be for his death. The loss of this leading 
citizen and good man was deplored by all. 

Mr. Ford, although not a pioneer of the town, 
was almost looked upon as its father, for many years. 
He was not only a man of uncommon business 
qualifications but possessed a nature full of sym- 
pathy for the unfortunate, provided they were 
industrious and worthy. This trait of his charac- 
ter was oftentimes accompanied by tangible assist- 
ance as well. 

He was a man that took pleasure in noticing 
children and that was sure to afford them as much 
pleasure as it did him. The first sleigh-ride I 
remember ever taking was with Mr. Ford early in 
the sixties when we visited the rear end of his home 
farm, extending, what seemed to me then, a long 
ways back from the village. 

His funeral was held on a beautiful summer day 
and the services conducted at the stone house were 
attended by a great number of people, including 
many prominent men from our section of the State, 

On the twenty-first day of August, 1873, I sailed 
from New York on the steamer Isaac Bell for 
Norfolk and Richmond. At the latter point I took 
the cars for St. Albans and Huntington. 

I remained in West Virginia several months, 
returning: to Oneonta toward the close of the year. 



]87, 



CHAPTER XLIV. 
FinST TRIP TO HART WICK. 



A 



BOUT SEVEN O'CLOCK in the evening of 
Saturday, May 10, 1873, Edward Williams 
accompanied by the writer drove out of our yard 
immediately after supper and started on a night ride 
of twenty miles. 

Our point of destination was the house of Mr. 
HoUister of Hartwick, he being Mr. Williams' fath- 
er-in-law. 

At that time, we were getting short of hay at home 
and father was desirous of having a quantit}^ of the 
same brought from our farm in the town of New 
Lisbon to supply his live-stock in Oneonta. He 
accordingly prepared to send out two teams for that 
purpose. It was arranged for Mr. Williams to leave 
Oneonta with the first team on the Saturday even- 
ing before referred to, enabling him to pass Sunday 
with his relations in Hartwick, while on the follow- 
ing Monday morning the second team, to be driven 
by Joshua Roe, was to leave Oneonta very early in 
the day and meet us at the New Lisbon farm. I 



ONEOXTA MEMORIES 181 

had never been in Hartwick and availed myself of 
this opportunity for seeing that section of the county. 

We were obliged to make this trip on a hay wag- 
on for reasons already understood, but by placing 
boards across from one side of the rigging to the 
other and covering the seats thus made with buffalo 
robes, were enabled to travel very comfortably. 

It was at the close of a pleasant spring day thai 
we started, making our departure via the Blend or 
^'hill road," as it is occasionally called, and in a 
short time Oneonta was left in the valley below us. 

Our route was almost constantly up grade for an 
hour or more after leaving home and by the time 
we reached the summit of the range of hills between 
the Oneonta and Otego creeks, 

The mantle of night had fallen down o'er the earth, 
And the last fading landscape was lost to our view. 

Upon reaching a point where the road commenced 
to slowly descend into the valley of the Otego, our 
attention was attracted to some fires which were blaz- 
ing on the opposite hills, perhaps a mile and a half 
away, toward the west. These fires, we afterwards 
learned, were on the farm of William Gile, who had 
been burning a considerable area of new or fallow 
land. 

We reached the valley road presently and followed 
the same past the quiet village of Laurens, and a 
little later there loomed up a steep acclivity on our 



182 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

right covered by a growth of hemlock, the property 
of my father and commonly called the Owl Patch. 

Fourteen miles from Oneonta we reached the vil- 
lage of Mount Vision and the night was then so far 
advanced that the lights in the houses were nearly 
all out. 

The air was now getting chilly and our conversa- 
tion almost ceased. Far away in our rear, the fires 
on the distant hills were still visible, but these too 
presently disappeared and almost the only appeal to 
our attention left, was either the solitary bark of 
some remote watch dog or the constant noise made 
by tlie rumbling of our wagon as we journeyed over 
the hilly roads of Hartwick. 

About eleven o'clock we reached the farmhouse of 
Mr. Hollister with no welcome ray of light there- 
from to break the surrounding darkness. We pres- 
ently aroused the gentleman, however, and after 
caring for our horses with the aid of a lantern, we 
entered the house and straightway went to bed. 

In the afternoon of the following day Edward 
Williams and I walked across the fields for about a 
mile and a half in a northwesterly direction, to the 
house of his father, Marlin Williams, who owned a 
fine farm on the Otego creek, a mile or two above 
Hartwick village. Toward evening we returned to 
Mr. HoUister's, where w^e again passed the night. 

On Monday morning, May 12th, my friend and I 
hitching on to the hay wagon got an earl}^ start, 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 183 

drove through Hart wick village to the west bank of 
the Otego creek, followed down the same to a branch 
road located a little below South Hartwick, turned 
to the right to enter the same and a few minutes later 
reached the summit of the low range of hills lying 
between the east and Avest branches of the afore- 
said creek. 

The moment we reached this elevation, we were 
enabled to see my father's farm, located below us in 
the valley of the West Branch, and there by the 
barn we likewise saw standing a man, also a team of 
horses hitched to a wagon with a hay rigging. 
Joshua had arrived from Oneonta in advance of us. 
We waved our hats and saw him respond in like 
manner. 

Descending into the valley we found that he had 
reached there but a few minutes before we first 
discovered him from the top of the hill. 

We presently commenced w^ork repairing a fence 
extending up the hill along the southerly line of the 
farm. 

The day getting decidedly warm as the forenoon 
advanced, upon the suggestion of one of the men I 
jumped on a horse and rode down to a house near 
Fall Bridge, owned by a man named Johnson, where 
I secured a jug of cider. 

Returning with it to the farm we partook of the 
beverage and found it a trifle ''hard." 



184 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

There was no one occupying this farm at the 
time so we took our meals during our sojourn there 
with a widow lady named Mrs. Naylor, w^ho owned 
the adjoining place on the south boundary. 

In the afternoon of the day we arrived, our work 
on the fence was resumed. Upon reaching the top 
of the hill, having entered the woods we discovered 
an immense hemlock tree which, by jointly clasping 
hands, we could barely reach around. 

After supper at Mrs. Naylor's we returned to our 
farm and prepared to go to bed. The house was very 
ancient in appearance and looked spookish, so for 
the adventure I proposed tliat w^e occupy one of the 
rooms. We accordingly took our buffalo robes and 
some blankets and retired to a bed which we impro- 
vised with the same on the bare floor of the west 
chamber upstairs. 

Presently we heard some strange sounds in the 
old structure which were probably caused by the 
cracking of the woodwork, owing to changing 
atmospheric conditions as the evening advanced. 
After a little more time had passed I asked 
the men if they did not notice in the starlight 
certain vague and shadowy forms over against the 
southerly wall of the apartment, but found they were 
not inclined to be frightened much. 

It then became so cold that we gathered up our 
])lankets and robes and repaired to the hay mow in 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 185 

the barn where we finally passed the night with a 
fair degree of comfort. I subsequently ascertained 
that the ancient house upon this farm was erected, 
by a man named Harrington, in the year 1813. 

Shortly after arising, the next morning, we dis- 
tinctl}^ heard the steam whistle of the railroad shops 
at Oneonta — a distance of twelve miles in an air 
line. 

After breakfast, while the men were loading the 
wagons with hay, I took a horseback ride up the 
valley as far as the wayside cemetery located some- 
what beyond the house of the late Isaac Gregory. 
After spending a little time inspecting some of the 
old tombstones, I returned to the farm and found 
the men nearly ready to start for Oneonta. 

On our way home we stopped a minute or two at 
the aforesaid Mr. Johnson's. 

It was well along in the afternoon of the same 
day that we reached the end of our journey. 



^ ^ ^ 



I 



187Jf 



CHAPTER XLV. 
Om.Y THE BRIGHTNESS OF MORNING. 

WHEN MAN ATTAINS the fullness of years 
and like a ripened harvest, is cut down 
and borne away, it is only in accordance with the 
eternal fitness of things ; it is but in exact conform- 
ity with what we are taught to expect from the earliest 
stages of our knowledge. 

But there is a period in life, when the implacable 
and eternal foe and master cannot assault our sacred 
citadels and bear away the fruits of victory, without 
arousing within us a feeling of rebellion toward the 
inevitable, which philosophy cannot lessen and the 
lapse of time can only partially overcome. 

When Death aims his ruthless and successful 
assaults against those who are standing in the full 
bloom and blush of the beautiful morning, there is 
a pathos attending their untimely fall which we fail 
to discover in tliose who, having passed through the 
heat and the burden of day, fall down by the way- 
side at evening, filled with knowledge and years. 

I think my old Oneonta schoolmates, who may 
peruse this article, will agree that there were few 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 187 

deaths in our younger days that made so profound 
an impression upon our minds as did those of Jennie 
Lewis and Fannie McDonald. 

An interval of seven years elapsing between the 
two summons, each took her departure for another 
world at about one and the same age — sixteen 
years. 

Jennie Lewis was some years older than the writer 
and passed away while paying a visit to some rela- 
tives in another town. Her death was sudden and 
unexpected and the announcement of it in Oneonta 
was received by many with an incredulous look, for 
it seemed but yesterday we saw her in all the inno- 
cence and happiness of youth. 

She was beloved by all ages and classes of people 
and I remember, on the day of her funeral there 
was hardly a boy or girl knowing her in life who 
failed to be present upon that mournful occasion. 

Fannie McDonald died from the effects of a long, 
lingering illness, so that for much of the last two 
years of her life, she was rarely seen by her many 
friends. It was the beginning of the final separa- 
tion that removed her forever from the school, 
the church and all the familiar walks of her girl- 
hood. 

Toward the end of life her countenance gradually 
assumed the color of white marble, and one who was 
much with her during that period said she seemed 
hardly mortal, for her gentle soul had already caught 



188 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

and was entering the glow — the inscrutable light 
which surrounds and encloses Eternity. 

" Everybody loved her " were the words spoken 
of Fannie, by an aged man, many long years after 
her death — and that was a text, a sermon and her 
best eulogy all in one. 



^ ^ ^ 



187Jf 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

A RIDE ON A STORMY DAY. 

,N THE FOURTH DAY OP JULY, 1874, I 
left Oneonta a little after one o'clock p. m., 
with a two-horse wagon, bound for Masonville on 
some business for father. 

My departure from home was on a cloudy day 
with some indications of rain. 

AVhen in the vicinity of the railroad crossing 
west of the Oneonta Plains, near where the Barnes 
and Fox mill had once been located, the clouds 
began to thicken rapidly. Upon reaching the resi- 
dence of Reuben Hale about one mile east of Otego, 
the sky became so black and threatening that 1 took 
the liberty of driving into this gentleman's barn at 
a moment simultaneous with a terrific clap of 
thunder and the loud pattering on the roof of the 
first few preliminary drops of rain that preceded 
the storm. 

I noticed several young ladies in Mr. Hale's door- 
yard who quickly withdrew to the house for 
protection from the impending elements. 



190 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The rain fell in great quantities for perhaps 
twenty minutes. About half an hour after first 
entering the barn, the clouds having broken away, 
I was enabled to resume my journey, although the 
muttering of distant thunder reminding one of the 
only partially appeased choler of some angry beast 
of prey, seemed to betoken a renewal of the storm 
in the near future. Nor were these indications 
amiss, for shortly after crossing one of the bridges 
at Unadilla village, later on in the day, and while 
following the road skirting the south bank of the 
Susquehanna, the clouds had rapidly concentrated 
again in angr}^ array ; once more the warning drops 
of rain began to strike upon the adjacent foliage, 
when a blinding flash of lightning filled the sur- 
rounding space as the thunderbolt struck the bosom 
of the placid river but a few yards away from me. 

I felt rather apprehensive regarding my safety 
on account of being so near the water and accord- 
ingly urged the team forward on a run to get out of 
the dangerous proximity of the stream as soon as 
possible. 

At this time the rain was not falling fast so I con- 
tinued my journey some considerable distance 
without stopping. Later on, however, the storm 
was renewed and once more I was obliged to seek 
the friendly shelter of a barn. 

On account of the delays experienced, it was after 
dark before I reached the road leading directly into 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 191 

Mormon Hollow. The sky continued cloudy, even 
into the night, it being difficult to see the road at 
all beyond the horses. The adjacent fields, upon 
approaching my destination, seemed of a white color 
as I strained my eyes in attempting to penetrate the 
intervening darkness. I presently discovered that 
this ghastly appearance was owing to the fact that 
the unmown meadows were thickly besprinkled wdth 
daisies. 

About nine o'clock in the evening I arrived at the 
red farmhouse of Stephen Hoyt where 1 passed the 
night, returning home on the following day. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

FARM LIFE IN 1874. 

y RETURNED TO ONEONTA from West Vir- 
^ ginia, as before intimated, toward the close of 
December, 1873. 

A few days later I went over to the Laurens farm 
where father was clearing some land on the Otego 
creek flat. 

There were six or eight men at work there, jDart 
of whom lived at the farmhouse, then occupied by- 
Joshua Roe. Some of the men were felling trees 
and cutting them into saw logs, some were hauling 
wood to the factory at Laurens and others were 
getting out hemlock bark. 

Among the men thus engaged were Joshua Roe, 
Charles Carroll, F. M. Davis, Elmer Salisbury, 
Richard Crandall, D. Brumaghim, F. Hackett and 
John Ottman. 

In the Spring of 1874 father and I made a trip 
to Cannonsville. also visited a farm that had recently 
come into our possession, situated on the Delaware 
river, a mile or two above that village. We returned 
home via Masonville and the Ouleout valley stop- 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 193 

ping on the way at our famn located at the head of 
Swart Hollow and then occupied by Charles Carroll. 
This latter place was near the Round Top and 
commanded an extensive view, including several 
villages. 

In the month of May I stopped at the New Lisbon 
farm for several weeks. At that time there w^as a 
man on this place named Prentice, somewhat past 
middle age, and the family, for the time being, 
comprised simply himself, his wife and the writer. 

Mr. Prentice possessed a good strong voice and 
arising with the lark in the morning w^ould make 
the welkin ring with his shoutings, in the overflow- 
ing exuberance of pure happiness. 

South Hartwick, sometimes called "Sodom Point," 
is located about one mile over the hill from this 
farm and occasionally I would walk over there for 
the mail. Besides "Sodom Point" there were other 
sobriquets applied to vicinity hamlets, such, for 
illustration, as ''Sheepskin Corners," Pete Hook" 
and "Peth." Our nearest neighbor was Isaac 
Gregory, supervisor of New Lisbon and a prominent 
farmer, who lived in a stone house, on the opposite 
side of the road, a few rods above us. 

During most of June I stopped with Joshua Roe 
at the Laurens farm. On Sunday the fourteenth of 
that month, there Avas a slight fall of snow, early in 
the morning. A little later in the same day Josliua 



194 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

and I went to Morris, returning home toward even- 
ing. 

The season up to that time and even hiter was 
uncommonly rainy. Upon the evening of Sun- 
day, the seventh day of June, our section of the 
state was visited by a great rain storm, accom- 
panied by hail, thunder and lightning. The Sus- 
quehanna river overflowed its banks at Oneonta 
w^hile crops in Hartwick were greatly damaged. 

A little later in the summer Edward Williams and 
the writer made a trip to Sidney and Masonville, 
stopping the first night with Mr. Van Buren and 
the second night with Charles Hollister, both farm- 
ers of Sidney. 

In August I was again at the New Lisbon farm. 
While there, this time, we had the house reshingled, 
and I recollect there was a colored man from 
Oneonta, named John Morris, who helped in this 
work. He was, like most of his race, fond of music 
and would occasionally favor us with a rendition 
of "The Sword of Bunker-Hill" in a voice so sten- 
torian, that Mr. Prentice would withdraw from the 
scene in chagrin. 

Joshua came up with some farm supplies a little 
later and I returned with him. 

In October, father had a large number of men on 
the Laurens farm, driving piles in the Otego creek 
and filling in between the same and the bank with 
logs, brush and stone in order to protect our adja- 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 195 

cent meadow flat from the ravages of the stream at 
high water time. Among the men here employed 
were Joshua Roe, David Alger, Richard Crandall, 
John Ottman, William Gile, G. H. Ramsey, Mar- 
shall Grannis, Charles Carroll, Obed Carroll, Wil- 
liam Carroll and John Whitlock. A man from 
Laurens village, whose name I think was Menzo 
Johnson, also assisted in the work with a pair of 
oxen. 

Toward the close of the same month I accom- 
panied father on a trip to Wayne county, Pennsyl- 
vania, via Cannonsville and Deposit. 

A little later, I went to Stamford upon some 
business for father. I stopped there at a hotel all 
night where I met Ezra Gifford of Oneonta. From 
Stamford I continued my journey to DeLancey, a 
little below Delhi, and returned home on the day 
following. 

One evening, about this same period, Joshua Roe 
who "was then living on Cherry street, came to me 
with the information that two certain parties, enter- 
ing our barn and helping themselves in an unau- 
thorized manner to a horse and buggy, had started 
for a dance that was announced to take place that 
evening in a hop-house near the upper end of Swart 
Hollow. Joshua was suffering with a felon on one 
of his fingers at the time, but proposed that he 
should accompany me on a night trip to recover the 
missing property. 



196 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

So we hitched up a horse to another buggy and 
in a short time had left the glimmering lights of the 
village, far down in the valley below us. Upon 
approaching our destination we could hear the sound 
of music and revelry issuing forth into the frosty 
night from the precincts of the hop-house. 

Driving to the barn we immediately discovered 
the horse and vehicle we were after and took charge 
of the same without delay. 

As we were harnessing the recovered horse, up 
came the men who had made all the trouble and 
impudently declared they would not allow us to take 
possession of our owm property, in which line of pro- 
cedure they received encouragement by murmurs of 
approval of their course from sundry of their friends 
who were standing near. 

It immediately occurred to me that the chances 
were in favor of certain of father's employes being 
participants in the dance in the neighboring build- 
ing, so I straightway started for assistance. Upon 
entering the lower room of the liop-house, the first 
person whom I saw was Charles Carroll who at that 
time was still occupying our farm in that same 
vicinity. 

Charley stood and still stands about six feet three 
inches high in his stockings and was a man who 
never felt averse to a scuffle. 

A very few words explained to him the difficulties 
of our situation and to hear, with him, was to act. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 197 

Stepping to the foot of the stairs leading to the floor 
above, which was then shaking with the tread of two 
score dancing feet, he spoke the word ''John " in a 
voice that was heard above the sound of the music. 
In an instant, one of his brothers appeared and we 
immediately started for the barn. Upon arriving 
there, the trouble that had seemed to be brewing, 
as quickly subsided, so Joshua and I were soon 
homeward bound with the recovered property. 

^ 'k % % % ^ 

The year 1874 brought to Oneonta a better quality 
of amusements in the line of public exhibitions than 
the town had ever enjoyed before. 

On the 21st of March, Elizabeth Cady Stanton 
gave an interesting lecture at the Presbyterian 
church. Two days later, at the same place, she was 
followed by Blind Tom, the colored musical prodigy. 

Many people will remember the astonishing per- 
formance, given on the piano, by this famous negro 
boy who, in all things else that pertained not to 
music, was but little, if any, removed from actual 
idiocy. 

On the evening of June 16th, Philip Phillips gave 
a vocal rendition of sacred music at the Methodist 
church. 

Many people who attended his concert will remem- 
ber the fact that it was an extremely stormy night. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

FARM LIFE IN 1875. 

^N THE EARLY PART of the spring of 1875, 
^ father wished to send a number of dairy cows 
from Oneonta to the Masonville farms and the wri- 
ter volunteered to assist John Ottman to drive them. 

The snow, at that time, still covered the ground 
to a considerable depth, and I found, before reaching 
Otego, that we had entered upon no holiday occupa- 
tion. 

The cows being active and fond of adventure at 
the commencement of our journey, seemed inclined 
and anxious to explore every yard, field and lane 
that presented an open gateway as well as every 
connecting highway that we came to. This neces- 
sitated more or less wading through the snow for us 
while in pursuit of them and as a result, upon 
reaching Wells' Bridge, John and I began to feel in 
a considerable degree the natural effects of our exer- 
tions. We accordingly stopped there at the tavern 
for dinner and likewise fed and rested the cows. 

Along in the afternoon we resumed our journey 
and were thankful to discover that they were now 
inclined to be driven without making us much 
trouble. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 199 

We crossed the Susquehanna at Unadilla and 
about dark reached a farmhouse near the summit 
of the divide between Young's station and Mason- 
ville, where we remained all night, reaching our 
destination the next forenoon. 

Walking back to Unadilla, in the course of a day 
or tAvo, I took the cars for home. 

Later in the year I passed a little time on our 
Charlotte creek place, occupied by James Cornwell. 
At this same time father had two carpenters there, 
doing some work on the barn, and a little later we 
put them to work making sundry repairs on the 
''Slab City" (West Davenport) hotel, at the top of 
the hill. One of these carpenters was from Madison 
county and was fond of relating incidents in con- 
nection with the depredations of the Loomis family 
near his former home. 

About this time father and I made a trip up the 
Schenevus valley, stopping all night with a man 
named Mulkins who lived near Maryland station. 

In July I made a trip to New York and visited 
Watervliet relatives on my return. 

In the earl}^ part of Fall I was again at the Corn- 
well place for a few days. At that time there was a 
pleasant old couple named Woodbeck living just 
across the road from where I was stopping. 

Later on in the season I made business trips for 
father to Gilbertsville, to Schenevus and to Coopers- 
town. 



200 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

In November I visited Schenectady, dined with 
Major Freeman, formerly of Givens Hotel and also 
took a ride around town with S. P. Franchot on the 
following day. 

Among employes of father's, not already men- 
tioned, who were with us more or less during the 
three preceding years were Stephen Carroll, Eugene 
Cipperley, Thomas Duval, William Wright, Byron 
Jones, Mr. Murdock, Henry Backus, S. J. Cummins, 
John Sargeants, H. Whitlock, J. McMullen and Son, 
Orrin Sisson, Charles H. Mayo, William Schermer- 
horn, Samuel Judson, Mr. Austin, Gains Ward, Wil- 
liam Hilsinger and Charles Seymour. 

Early in the evening of the 11th day of the last 
mentioned month, father sent me with four teams 
to the house of Jefferson Crandallin ''the hemlocks.'' 
Mr. Crandall had recently taken on shares our 
Stephen Hoyt farm in Mason viile and the aforesaid 
teams were for the purpose of moving his household 
goods to his new home. We started from *'the hem- 
locks" a little after ten o'clock, p. m., with the follow- 
ing drivers : Charles Carroll, John Ottman, Joshua 
Roe and the writer. 

It was close to midnight, with the moon and stars 
shining brightly, when we entered Oneonta, Joshua 
and I bringing up the rear of the procession. Upon 
approaching the Freewill Baptist church, we cut 
loose from the advance men, and turning into Maple 
street, started for Joshua's house on Cherry street, 



[ 



ON EON T A MEMORIES 201 

with the intention of rejoining our companions at 
some point beyond Colonel Snow's, they in the 
meantime having kept straight ahead on Main 
street to Chestnut. 

Stopping at Cherry street for but a few minutes, 
we did not overtake the other men, however, until 
we had passed the house of a Mr. Bresack, near the 
first railroad crossing at The Plains. Our progress 
was necessarily confined to walking, on account of 
the heavy loads. Toward morning we all became 
somewhat chilled, and Joshua getting drowsy in 
passing over the Reuben Hale hill, had a narrow 
escape from falling out of his wagon. At Otego, 
endeavoring unsuccessfully to arouse the village 
landlord, we continued our journey through the 
cold night. 

About six o'clock in the morning we reached the 
house of a man named Hickox (several miles east of 
Unadilla village,) where we had breakfast. Resum- 
ing our journey, we took dinner at a farm-house in 
Sidney and arrived at our destination a few hours 
later. 

Upon our return we reached Wells' Bridge about 
noon, where we had dinner and arrived home a lit- 
tle before dark. 

Toward the end of the year I went into business 
in Oneonta village as will duly appear in a following 
chapter. 



1876 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

A HALF-SHIRE TRIP. 

/^\N THE 8th day of January, 1876, a public 
^^i^ meeting was held at the Central Hotel to 
inaugurate a movement toward making a half-shire 
town of Oneonta. 

Later in the same month, I took several petitions 
with blank spaces appertaining for signatures and 
started forth from the village one morning for the 
purpose of securing endorsements in the Otsdawa 
and West Laurens districts. 

I was conveyed by horse and buggy as far as West 
Oneonta and thenceforward continued my trip afoot. 

From the latter place I followed the road to Ots- 
dawa and thence crossed over the boundary line 
into the township of Laurens. I took with me what 
lunch I required and stopping by the wayside a little 
after noon, partook of the same. 

I was very successful in getting signatures to the 
petitions and do not recollect one failure made 
during the day. 

Sometimes I would find the parties I was in search 
of, at the house or the barn, and once or twice I 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 203 

remember following up the sound of axes from the 
adjacent woods, and interviewing the farmers in the 
depths of the forest. 

It was close to nightfall of the short wintr}^ day 
when I found the task allotted me substantially fin- 
ished, and discovered myself to be in the vicinity of 
a place called Brewster's Mills, on the West Oneonta 
and Morris road. 

I straightway made application to a man whom I 
found at the mill for supper and a night's lodging, 
which request he was kind enough to very promptly 
grant, and we accordingly repaired to the house 
close by. 

I remember how welcome the supper and warm 
fire were to the wayfarer, and upon retiring, how 
soundly I slept that night ; but I regret to say, in 
the lapse of fifteen years since that occasion, I have 
forgotten my entertainer's name, which I would like 
to insert in this paper. 



^ ^ ^ 



1875-1877 



CHAPTER L. 
LAST YEARS OF VILLAGE LIFE. 




OWARD THE CLOSE of the year 1875, I 
took an agency for several fire and life 
insurance companies, and represented these corpo- 
rations in Oneonta for a period of something over 
a year. 

I found this occupation satisfactory in a business 
sense ; before abandoning it having succeeded in 
securing a fairly profitable patronage. In connec- 
tion with my new vocation I made, in the follow- 
ing spring, an extended trip through the central 
portion of the county. 

On the 28th day of April, 1876, I participated as 
a member of the Hook and Ladder Company, in the 
first parade of Oneonta's new volunteer fire depart- 
ment. 

The centennial national birthday being observed 
in our town, I recollect a noticeable feature of the 
public procession was the part taken by fourteen 
young ladies representing Columbia and the thir- 
teen original states. 



ON EG NT A MEMORIES 205 

Early in the same month W. E. Yager and the 
writer started on a fishing and camping trip to 
the Beaver KilL After an absence of one week we 
returned, on the fourteenth, to Oneonta. This was 
so long ago that I do not pretend to remember what 
success we had fishing in that famous trout stream. 
My friend and companion, however, may possibly 
recollect the extent of our catch. 

The presidential campaign in the same year was 
a very exciting one. For a long time after election 
it was a matter of much uncertainty to man}^ 
whether Tilden or Hayes was to be the next Presi- 
dent. 

About the middle of February, 1877 I visited 
Washington, D. C. I returned to Oneonta shortly 
afterwards, and about April 28th following, went 
to New York. 

In June I again returned to Oneonta, having al- 
ready sold my insurance business to J. B. Camp. 

I ceased to be a resident of my native town on 
the twenty-ninth of the last-mentioned month, and 
three days later started from New York on my way 
to California, my new home. 



^ ^ ^ 



CHAPTER LT. 

1871 



'gll'HE YEARS 1872 AND 1873, following im- 
mediately after the erection of the first 



? 



railroad machine shop in Oneonta, were memorable 
ones in the history of our town. 

During that period a large number of new streets 
were opened up, and building operations w^ere con- 
ducted on a scale so great, for a town of the size, 
that it was simply without precedent in all that 
section of the state, including at least four counties. 

Among the more prominent thoroughfares added 
to the street system of Oneonta about that time; 
were the J. R. L. Walling and T. D. Watkins sys- 
tems; Ford avenue by E. R. Ford, Esq.; Cherry and 
Green streets, by Solon Huntington ; and West 
Broadway and Fonda avenue by Snow and Fonda. 

There were several other well known streets 
opened up then, for which credit should be given to 
Messrs. Baker, Miller, Luther, Parish. Scramling 
and perhaps several others whose names I do not, 
at the moment of writing, recall. 

This may also be termed the active beginning of 
Oneonta's brick period, as prior to then, the Bissell 



I 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 207 

and Saunders' block was the only business structure 
in town of that material. 

The years 1873-1874 saw the commencement and 
completion of the Central Hotel, the McCrum and 
and Saunders' block, the Rockwell and Stanton 
block and the Mrs. Bundy block-all built of brick. 
The Episcopalians during this period finished 
their stone church and the village received its new 
sohoolhouse on the "lower deck." 

The last mentioned years also witnessed the 
organizing of the Agricultural Fair association and 
the building of a new railroad depot. 

Toward the close of 1874 there were four weekly 
newspapers published in Oneonta-the HeraU and 
Democrat, the Commercial, the Liberal and the Dollar 
Neivspapei'. 

At about the same time, a few street signs made 
their appearance and the numbering of houses 
commenced in a scattering way. I think the first 
street lamp was also put up sometime withm the 
aforesaid two years, oil or naphtha being the illum- 
inating material. This lamp, I have in mmd, was 
located in front of the residence of Meigs Case, M. 
D., on Dietz street. 

In 1875, the Wyoming Conference of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church was held in Oneonta and the 
same year witnessed a large addition to the Academy 
street schoolhouse. 



208 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Oneonta's present fire department was established 
in 1876 and in the same j^ear Owen Phillips com- 
menced work on his brick block adjoining the 
Stanton Opera House. 

In the latter half of the period of 1871-1877, our 
town grew slowly, very slowly as compared with her 
progress of a few years before. 

There was then much skepticism relative to her 
future prosperity and so will there be again. 



^ ^ ^ 



1879 



CHAPTER LII. 

AN ILLUSTRIOUS NAME. 

/f^NE AFTERNOON, late in the fall of the year, 
\^/ my attention was attracted to the name on a 
card that had just been handed in to an official of 
the Central Pacific Railroad Company as he sat in 
his office in San Francisco. 

The gentleman who sent in the same, requested 
an interview and was duly admitted. 

The visitor's name was not a common one in 
America, nor was it especially familiar to our gener- 
ation ; but there was a day when it was like a magic 
talisman that nerved his followers to deeds of sub- 
limest daring and impressed liis enemies as sym- 
bolical of disaster to their country's cause. 

As the stranger made his appearance and was 
introduced by an attache of the office, my curiosity, 
already aroused, was increased several fold on 
account of the striking resemblance he bore, espe- 
cially in the outline of his nose and eagle-like keen- 
ness of eye, to the illustrious man of the same 
name, with whose picture my mind was familiar. 



210 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

Could this foreigner be his kinsman ? I mentally 
inquired, and as the query took shape, the familiar 
surroundings of that office seemed to fade away. 



It is a strange land. Before me is an island in a 
great river and across this little spot of ground is 
moving a mighty host, accoutered with all the pano- 
ply of war. 

Somewhat back from the north bank of the river 
is another great army, on the defensive ; waiting 
for the mightiest military captain the modern world 
has ever known, to assume the aggressive. So for- 
midable is this master of the art of war, that his 
opj^onents await his good pleasure as to when, where 
and how the opening blow of the impending strug- 
gle is to be delivered. 

Behold ! under the partial protection of a great, 
united and simultaneous lire of artillery, the mighty 
column of foot, horse and artillery commences mov- 
ing across the bridge, from the island to the north 
bank, where there are two little stone villages to be 
immediately taken ; while but a few miles away the 
house-tops and steeples of the capital city of an 
empire are thronged with excited people, breath- 
lessly listening to catch the sounds of battle. 

The villages are taken, are lost and retaken ; the 
infuriated foes in many instances struggling hand 
to hand for the possession of the narrow streets. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 211 

The river which has been rapidly rising now 
breaks asunder the bridge, cutting in twain the 
army of the invaders. 

Now follows the second great disaster of the day, 
for Lannes is mortally hurt. 

The Emperor in the meantime is calm, always 
calm in battle, and now in the face of impending 
destruction he seems no more, no less so. He has 
lost the commander of one wing; he will now lean 
a little more on the man who commands the other, 
while he puts into action the great mental re- 
sources which he always seemed to have in reserve. 

The bridge must be repaired. Time is now 
everything. Can the surviving wing commander 
meanwhile hold his position in one of the ruined 
villages ? A messenger is hurriedly dispatched to 
the scene, to ascertain. The orderly finds the great 
marshal, almost overcome with heat and exhaustion, 
seated among the smoking ruins of the town, and 
not far from the cemetery which has been the scene 
of the most sanguinary feature of the awful struggle. 

This is the second burial place that has loomed 
up, ominously, in the pathway of his imperial 
master ; it is the repetition of gloomy Eylau, with- 
out the drifting snow, to one who must have only 
victory, upon the same principle that while con- 
stant attrition may reduce the magnitude of a 
larger stone, the smaller one, with which it has 
been in contact is, in the mean time, entirely wasted 
away. 



212 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The orderly is told to inform the Emperor that 
the position will be held. It is held — the bridge is 
repaired and his soldiers withdraw to the island for 
yet a while. 

The scene shifts, and a little later the second 
attempt to reach the north bank proves so success- 
ful that within a few^ hours from the commencement 
of the movement, one hundred and fifty thousand 
soldiers have crossed from the island, and are drawn 
up in battle array to a like number of opponents 
upon the plains of Wagram. 

The man who stood like a rock, near the church- 
yard, against whom his foes in overwhelming num- 
bers, like a mighty sea, surged and beat against in 
vain, commands a corps of Napoleon's army at 
Wagram, resting on the ends of the pontoon 
bridges leading back to the island. He is the 
sheet anchor of his sovereign's house upon this 
occasion, and the bridges are required no more. 



The scene vanished as quickly as it came ; but I 
found that our aged visitor was indeed the son of 
Andre Massena, Marshal of France and Prince of 
Essling. 



1888 



CHAPTER LIII. 

FAIRS— OLD AND NEW 

^O ME, it is always a great pleasure to attend 
a Fair, be it in city or in country and I 
i^resume that this is the case with most of the 
people of the human race. 

There is nothing in the line of public events so 
universally attractive to mankind and to their Avives 
and children, as well. This is proven by its imme- 
morial tenure in the hearts and customs of nearly 
all peoples. 

At a Fair there is not only so much to appeal to 
the instincts of the business and speculative man, 
to the economy and thrift of the housewife, to the 
industry of the huckster and vender, to the palate of 
the epicure, to the greed of the sharper and the 
wiles of the gambler and trickster, to the delighted 
credulity of the ignorant and to the amusement 
lover of every phase, both old and young, but take it 
all in all it is the place of all others to see human 
nature open or disguised in all its conflicting lights, 
shades and colors. 



214 ONEONTA MEMORIES 

The commercial elements and many of the public 
amusement features of a Fair of to-day remain 
much the same, when compared with those of ages 
and ages ago. It is the one institution created b}^ 
man that has come down to us from antiquity prac- 
tically unchanged. 

Dynasties have come and gone ; Empires have 
been built up and have crumbled away, but the Fair 
of the Egyptian, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman 
the Hindoo, the Mongolian and the ancient Russian 
has kept rolling merrily down the ages to the 
present time. 

A few weeks ago while attending a certain Fair, 
I pictured in imagination a scene upon another 
occasion of similar character that occurred in the 
days of the Plantagenets. It was in 1305, and at St. 
Bartholomew's. The place was crowded with peo- 
ple when a feature was introduced that had hardly 
been looked for by the merry participants. Through 
one of the gateways of old London town appeared 
a small cavalcade headed by a Sheriff advancing 
across the open ground in front of the city walls 
and destined for a place called '^ The Elms." One 
man was not mounted, however, but was dragged 
across the common at the tails of horses instead. 
This was a rare and unexpected treat, so men, 
women and children deserted St. Bartholomew and 
hastened to the objective point of the procession 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 215 

while the venders in the booths and stalls cried 
the merits of their wares for a time in vain. 

Then followed the public butchery of Scotland's 
martyr chieftain, Wallace, and the crowd surged 
back to the now tame attractions of the Saint. 

Although the Fair has not much changed since 
that barbarous day of our ancestors, the times are 
different, and it is well to be thankful that we attend 
this institution in a later and, I trust, better gener- 
ation. 



m ^ ^ 



CHAPTER LIV. 
1890 

? LEFT ONEONTA IN THE YEAR 1877 to 

^ take up my residence on the Pacific coast, as 
before stated, but having visited my native town 
several times since becoming a Californian, I am 
fairly familiar with the several stages of her pro- 
gress during the intervening period. 

My impression is, the growth of Oneonta was 
slow during the period of 1877 — 1880. Tlie last 
ten years, however, have constituted the golden era 
of her history and I find but little remaining, in the 
business quarter, to remind me of its appearance a 
decade and a half ago. 

When I abandoned my old place of residence, 
there were but comparatively few brick business 
houses in town, but now the conditions are com- 
pletely reversed, for the frame structures used for 
mercantile purposes at the present time are decid- 
edly in the minority. 

These great improvements in the architectural 
appearance of Main, Chestnut and Broad streets 
were somewhat hastened by the extensive fires of 
the last ten years, which almost obliterated the 
old frame rows on the two former thoroughfares. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 217 

The religious denominations have likewise kept 
step with the march of improvement, having 
caught the progressive spirit of the times. In the 
last few years the Presbyterians, Methodists and 
Freewill Baptists have built new churches of brick, 
making with the Roman Catholic, four sanctuaries 
of that material within the village limits. Besides 
these, Oneonta has received a fifth new church, 
erected by the Universalists while the Episcopalians 
and First Baptists retain their old church buildings, 
more or less remodeled or improved. 

Among the prominent new industries, public 
institutions, improvements, etc., pertaining exclu- 
sively to more modern Oneonta, may be mentioned 
the State Normal School; table, chair, shirt and cigar 
factories; knitting mill; extensive additions to the 
railroad repair shops ; water, gas and electric light 
works ; phosphate works; State Armory ; street car 
line ; free mail delivery ; daily newspapers ; paved' 
streets ; new hotels ; great solid, substantial rows of 
business houses and a large number of elegant resi- 
dences. 

The Normal School, East End and South Side 
suburbs are rapidly growing up, where but a few 
years ago, were pastures, meadows and waving fields 
of grain. 

I left Oneonta an ambitious country village. I 
return to find it a vigorous town of over one hun- 
dred streets, with a city charter almost in sight. 



1890 



CHAPTER LV. 

SOUNDS THAT LINGEB. 

I'HE SOUNDS THAT REMAIN witli us, for 
years after the agency by which they were 
produced has ceased to exist, are not so much the 
sounds that arouse within us pleasure or fear; but 
they belong, more exclusively, to the local environ- 
ment of the dead, during the period of religious ser- 
vices immediately preceding burial. 

Then does Death assert his mighty prerogative 
over the living with its most tremendous import 
and the solitary voice of a bird or the monotonous 
buzzing of the flies breaking in on the awfal calm- 
ness of the place during one of the intervals per- 
taining to the last rites, makes an impression upon 
our minds, that remains when most else is forgotten. 

I liave sometimes thought that when Longfellow 
wrote: 

*• Forever — never! Never — forever!" 

lie not only drew his inspiration from an old clock 
on the stairs, but it ticked to him most eloquently 
in tlie midst nf some funeral service — of a relative 
or a friend. 



ONEONTA MEMORIES 219 

There is a cemetery, I have in mind, located on 
the bank of a brook. 

By this brook, there is a planing mill, and all day 
long is heard the voice of the mill ; sometimes sing- 
ing in a low, guttural tone and again sharp and loud. 

One day, while visiting the cemetery, I found the 
sexton just throwing up the last shovelfuls from a 
newly prepared grave. 

I saw the funeral procession slowly approaching. 

Presently the relatives and friends had surrounded 
the place that was, so soon, to receive the remains 
of their lost one, peacefully resting in the casket 
close beside it. 

Then followed the religious services, usual in the 
burial of the dead, but upon their conclusion and 
in the midst of the awful stillness that prevailed, as 
the body was about to be consigned to earth, a shrill 
monotonous sound broke in upon the mourners. It 
came from the mill — a sound that had often been 
heard upon similar occasions and whose sad mono, 
tones will long linger in the memories of many. 




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